Doctors in Parli booked under Sec 304 of IPC in abortion case

Mumbai, May 21 (PTI) Sudam and Saraswati Munde, the doctor couple from Parli in Beed district responsible for the death of a 30-year-old pregnant woman have been booked under Section 304 of IPC. Along with doctors, the woman's husband Mahadev Pattekar has also been charged under the provisions of the Act, which amounts to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The woman, Vijaymala Mahadev Pattekar, working as a sugarcane cutting labourer died on May 18 at 2100 hours because of hemorrhagic shock following second trimister abortion and heavy blood flow. Sources in the health department felt the couple should have been booked under stringent provisions of the IPC. The woman already had four daughters. There is no evidence of the woman in the mother and child tracking system. The doctor couple have been granted bail in the case. Yesterday, District civil surgeon from Beed and Assistant medical director from Latur were sent to Munde's hospital in Parli where it was found that the hospital was not registered under the Mumbai Nursing Home act, the pollution control board certificate for the hospital ahd expired on March 31, 2011. Munde told the visiting team that he did not keep a record of patients in his OPD-IPD register. Munde and his associates tried to beat up the visiting team members. The visiting team of doctors have told the health department in their report that the Mundes denied they had indulged in sex determination test and abortion of the pregnant woman. A similar case of violating the PCPNDT Act against the Mundes is still pending in the court in which the license for Medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) for their hospital has already been cancelled. The district civil surgeon of Beed has said the sonography machine and the foetus be seized as proof of the female foeticide for further action against the couple. PTI MR DK