Haryana: Godman held for duping pregnant women in Ambala

AMBALA: A godman hailing from Fatehgarh village in Haryana's Ambala district was caught red-handed for duping women. In a joint operation by the teams of Kurukshetra and Ambala health department, Mahant Surender Giri who used to give medicines to pregnant women promising them assured birth of male child after delivery was arrested.

The Kurukshetra health officials had received a tip-off that some baba (godman) gave medicines to pregnant women promising them birth of male child, following which a decoy, a pregnant woman, was arranged; she was sent to village Fatehgarh to the house of the godman.

As per the police complaint lodged by Dr Vipan Bhandari, nodal officer PNDT, Ambala, “On April 6, the tip-off was received from Kurukshetra health team and accordingly a plan was drawn to catch the man red-handed. On April 7, a was sent to village Fatehgarh at the house of the mahant where she was given three capsules in a small package and she was advised to consume the capsules on an empty stomach for three consecutive days with cow milk.”

“After the decoy came out and signaled the team, a raid was conducted and a sum of Rs 1,900 - the same currency notes given by the health officials to the decoy woman - was recovered from the possession of the accused. Many residents of Yamunanagar, Mohali, Chandigarh, Patiala and nearby areas were also waiting for their turn at the house of the accused to get the same medicine. They fled the spot after spotting the raid. The accused claimed that he had been giving these medicines to cure infertility,” stated Dr Bhandari.

On this complaint, a case against the accused Surender Giri under Section 4, 6 (c), and 23 of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered to start the investigation.

Panjokhra SHO inspector Surender Singh said, “On Monday, the arrested accused Surender Giri was presented before the court which has sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. We have registered a case and investigation has been initiated to ascertain since how long he has been doing this work.”