Alarmed by a horriyfing video that has gone viral of four women performing an abortion on a minor girl using material like a scissors in an old house in a village in Mahisagar district, the Gujarat police and State Health Department have launched an investigation.
Official sources in the Mahisagar district health department and police confirmed the video, which is of a dilapidated house in Santrampur village to be true, though they claimed it appeared more than six months old.
The district police on Saturday evening lodged an FIR against unknown persons under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and Medical Practitioners Act.
When contacted, Mahisagar chief district health officer Swapnil Shah said, “Even if the video is old, it is a serious matter. I, chairman of the local MTP Committee Dr JK Patel and police officials visited the place. Among the four women is a nurse, Kaliben Sangada, working in a local hospital (Priyal Hospital) who has been identified.”
The unedited video is so shocking that all Gujarati TV channels blurred the actual act of the women.
The nurse is seen performing the procedure on the around 15-year-old girl who was unconscious, while the other women assisted by holding her. The girl is yet to be identified. Health department sources said the women must have got the girl tranquilised somewhere before bringing her to that house to perform the procedure. Dr Shah said they had recovered some tablets from the place “and this gave an indication that the operation was done there.”
Police sources said the nurse, who had rented that house, had disappeared for the last 15 days.
The police would also record the statements of the villagers as well as the Priyal Hospital authorities since the nurse was employed there for 15 years. When contacted, Dr Minesh Shah, a gynaecologist at the Priyal Hospital, told local reporters that, “I have seen the video but since the face is not clear, I can’t say if she worked with our hospital. In any case, we can’t be held accountable for something happening outside the hospital.”
