For the first time a doctor in India has been jailed for disclosing the sex of a baby and offering to destroy the foetus. A court in Palwal, Haryana announced the sentence in the case, which began five years ago.

In 2001 a government team sent a decoy customer to Dr Anil Sabhani’s clinic in Palwal and made an audio recording of the doctor disclosing the sex of a foetus and offering to destroy it.

"It wasn’t easy we had to face a lot of problems, we did not have money, the prosecutor kept changing," said Dr Rekha Mishra, in charge of checking female foeticide. Her former colleague on the team Paul Mendiratta said, "till yesterday we’ve had pressure to drop the case from not just doctors but politicians as well". During the last five years most of Mishra’s team members have retired or been transferred but she pursued the case. The law against female foeticide was enforced 12 years ago and doctors have only been fined for the offence until now.

 

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