VELLORE: A quack was arrested for the third time for determining the sex of foetus and conducting critical scan examinations. The arrested was identified as G Sukumar (51), a native of Sam Nagar in Tirupattur. He was running a scan centre at Quaide Milleth Complex, located along Tirupattur-Krishnagiri road.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of health officials from Department of Child and Family Welfare and State government officials on Thursday laid a trap and caught the quack red-handed. Sources said the officials sent a woman to the centre on the pretext of taking a CT scan. When the woman asked for a doctor, Sukumar told her that the scanning would be conducted by him. When he was about to conduct the test, officials entered the scanning centre and caught him red-handed. Apart from scanning machines, the officials also seized drugs used for abortion.
Police investigation revealed that Sukumar was arrested twice earlier for determining the sex of foetus. The scan centre is registered in the name of doctor Dilip from Sholingur. Sources at the police department said Sukumar was a diploma holder and he had started an ultrasound scanning centre at Tiruppattur in 2004. In 2013, Sukumar was arrested when the condition of a woman from Papparapatti of Dharmapuri turned critical after he aborted her female foetus. Later, his scanning centre was sealed by the officials. But that didn’t deter him from starting a new one.
Within months, he started a new scanning centre – Super Ultra Scan Centre. Again, he was arrested in 2015.
Sources from the health department told Express that officials from Medical and Rural Health Services were in collusion with the quacks. “In most of the cases, the licence of the scan centres will be in the name of a doctor. Even though quacks are being arrested across Tamil Nadu, no action is being taken against the doctors on whose names the scan centres were registered,” said sources, adding without providing details of Indian Medical Council registration, it was not possible to get the licence for ultrasound scanning centres.
When contacted, Dr E Kalivarathan, Joint Director of Medical and Rural Health Services Vellore told Express only MBBS doctors could conduct ultrasound scans for abdomen and pelvic regions. “It’s not clear how he got the licence for a third time. The role of Dr Dilip will be inquired,” he added.