KRISHNAGIRI: Krishnagiri district health team conducted a decoy operation to nab the suspects involved in selective abortion at Konakaradu village in Salem district on Thursday. However, the suspects escaped and a portable scan machine was seized.
Health department sources told TNIE, "A seven-member health department team, based on the directions of Krishnagiri Collector C Dinesh Kumar, conducted a decoy operation with two women posing as mothers. They paid Rs 23,000 each to one Radhika of Tirupattur district. The team went to Konakaradu village in Salem district where two antenatal women from Dharmapuri district were waiting for the scan. The sex determination procedure was conducted at a house owned by one H Metha Pratheep Das (29). When the health team was waiting, the suspects received information and a suspect fled the spot.”
A portable scan machine was seized from the house. A preliminary enquiry by the health department revealed that four antenatal women from various places came for scans, each spending between Rs 8,000 and Rs 23,000.
Upon receiving information, Salem Joint Director of Health Services Dr SP Nandhini and Salem District Health Officer Dr S Soundammal reached the spot. Nandhini lodged a complaint at Tholasampatty police station on Thursday evening.
Health department sources added that mediators M Kanagavalli of Salem, who already has criminal cases against her, and G Sugumar of Tirupattur, who allegedly conducted the scan, was being probed and a search is on to trace them.