Nurse held for carrying out illegal abortion

GURUGRAM: A nurse, who is working at a government primary health centre in Bhondsi, was arrested on Saturday for her alleged involvement in illegal termination of pregnancies. According to police, Anamika was caught red-handed while she was administering abortion pills in a decoy patient who was sent by the raiding team to the staff quarters where the nurse is living.

The accused, cops said, conducted these medical procedures from the government staff quarters. The team was sent to the nurse's home after the district administration received a tip-off that she was misusing her official position to conduct illegal termination of pregnancy. Anamika allegedly stole medicines from the health centre and used the same to conduct illegal abortions, said sources.

The decoy patient, sent by the team, approached the nurse, saying that she was three-month pregnant and had gotten the sex-determination test done. She also told the nurse that she wanted to abort pregnancy because the test revealed that she was carrying a baby girl.

Instead of reporting it to health officials, the official said, the nurse asked her to come to her residence around 9am on Saturday. The decoy, accompanied by a relative reached her residence on time. Anamika charged Rs 10,000 for carrying out the procedure. The nurse, the official said, initially grew suspicious about the decoy and insisted that the woman should go with them to Sampla for the procedure. However, she refused to travel, claiming it would be difficult for her to travel back after carrying out the procedure.

When Anamika started the procedure by inserting pills inside the decoy, the PCPNDT (pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic technique) team, comprising drugs control officer Amandeep Chauhan, deputy civil surgeon Dr Saryu Sharma, secretary (Red Cross) Shyam Sunder and police, raided the premises and recovered four empty strips of medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits and seized market currency note.

Anamika, cops said, denied all charges and said she had been implicated. "She has been booked under sections 5 and 6 of the MTP Act. She was sent to judicial custody," said inspector Narender Singh, SHO, Bhondsi police station.