VELLORE/CHENNAI:At a time when the country is discussing about girl children in the wake of the Olympic medals the woman athletes won for India, officials from health and police departments arrested a woman running a scanning centre at Tiruvannamalai that undertook sex determination tests and illegal abortions, minutes after she administered drugs to a pregnant woman for terminating pregnancy on Tuesday.
Senior officials on the team told Express they recovered a large quantity of drugs used for foeticide, and a few women present at the time of the raid said they had come for abortion.
According to M Kamala Kannan, Superintendent, directorate of medical and rural health services, T Anandhi (48) had given pregnancy termination medicines to a woman just before the officials entered. “We called an ambulance and sent the woman to the Tiruvannamalai Medical College Hospital. If the foetus is expelled, we will preserve it and send it for testing to find out what drugs were used,” he added.
DSP KG Narasimhavarman, the vigilance officer at DMS, said the woman was arrested once earlier, and a case against her is pending in a court in Tiruvannamalai. After this, Anandhi constructed her own house on Avulkara Street and shifted the centre in 2013. She has made a name for herself over the years, as women from neighbouring districts, and even from Chennai, approached her for abortion, as she revealed the sex of the foetus and helped terminate the ‘unwanted’ ones. When they raided the centre following complaints, the official team led by Joint Director of Medical and Rural Health Services, Tiruvannamalai, N Rajendran, found that it was functioning without any proper approval. “A large quantity of tablets used for foeticide was recovered from the centre. A few pregnant women who were present there told us that they came to abort their children,” said Rajendran.
Anandhi, who has studied till Class VIII, claimed that she had a Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology (DMLT), which is sufficient to run a scan centre. “However, she did not produce the certificate when asked,” added Rajendran. Tiruvannamalai town police inspector Saravanakumar said her claims about education qualification would be verified in the investigation.
Also, there were no documents for equipment and medicines — including Schedule H drugs — used at the centre. Officials have seized medical equipment worth of `6-7 lakh, and have sealed the centre. Anandhi was arrested, but her employees fled the spot when the raid began, said an official. Joint-director of Medical and Rural Health Services will initiate action against her under the Pre Conception and Pre- Natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) Act 1994 and Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971.