TIRUVANNAMALAI: A married couple was arrested by the Tiruvannamalai police on Wednesday for allegedly running an illegal abortion centre. Surgical instruments and medicines used at the centre, set up behind a departmental store on the Avalurpet Road, were seized.
Police say the centre has been functioning from the same place for the last five years. P Kavitha of Krishna Nagar was running the centre while her husband G Prabhu, who has a medical shop in the town, helped her manage the affairs, occasionally.
“Based on information, we raided the centre Tuesday night and seized some equipment. We believe there is an illegal abortion racket behind the centre. We are probing for further details,” said police superintendent Sibi Chakravarthy. Kavitha, a school dropout, allegedly had hundreds of clients, mostly unmarried women. She used the help of touts to get new patients. Police have found that Prabhu is not qualified to be a pharmacist, and his shop does not have a license. Later in the day, raids were also conducted at scan centres where the suspect had her clients scanned.
Sources say action was taken after the Collector received a complaint from relatives of a woman who underwent an abortion at the illegal centre and developed complications. Authorities, however, maintained the complaint was lodged by the Joint Director of Medical Services. This is the second such case to be reported from Tiruvannamalai.
Second case in the last six months
This is the second such case to be reported from Tiruvannamalai in recent times. Last December, another couple was arrested for the same crime.