Quack held for death of woman during abortion

Coimbatore: A 57-year-old quack, who was practicing ayurveda at Vadachittur, was arrested on Wednesday after a 40-year-old woman died at the former’s clinic during an abortion a few days ago.
The Negamam police identified the deceased as P Muthulakshmi, of CM Nagar at Vadachittur. She was running Yogavanishi ayurvedic centre in the same locality.
Police have also launched a manhunt for her 26-year-old son P Karthick, who is on the run, in connection with the case.
According to an investigation officer, S Vanithamani, of Mettuvavi, had on April 28 approached Muthulakshmi for aborting her five-month-old fetus. “Muthulakshmi administered Vanithamani some injection at the latter’s residence and took her to the clinic at Vadachittur. Muthulakshmi and her son then gave the woman some medicines. Vanithamani, however, died at the clinic the same night.”
Following the woman’s death, Muthulakshmi allegedly offered Rs2.5 lakh to her family members and they did not lodge a police complaint. When police came to know about the incident, they made the woman’s son S Marimuthu, 19, to lodge a complaint against Muthulakshmi and her son, who went into hiding.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that the public health department had on July 20, 2017, sealed Muthulakshmi’s ayurvedic centre. Officials had then found allopathy medicines at her centre, but she managed conditional bail from the court. “The case is still pending before court,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, the Negamam police traced the whereabouts of Muthlakshmi to Nagapattinam, from where a special team picked her up for interrogation. She was subsequently booked under Section 314 (death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“We are discussing with senior officials to lodge a complaint against Muthulakshmi. It’s tantamount to murder and we plan to approach police to book her under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC,” said a public health department official.
The official said Muthulakshmi was a quack and she didn’t have any degree in ayurveda. “We are trying to collect details regarding her son who also claims to be a ayurveda practitioner.”