The Hindu : National : More to Nayagarh foeticide than meets the eye

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Thursday, Jul 26, 2007
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More to Nayagarh foeticide than meets the eye

Prafulla Das

NAYAGARH (Orissa): A visit to the spot on the outskirts of this district headquarters town, from where human body parts were recovered during the past three days, shows that there is more to the female foeticide issue than meets the eye.

Till Monday morning, hundreds of infant body parts lay strewn near a pit that was being used by the owners of a nursing home operating in the heart of the town, a few km away. Foul smell hit curious onlookers.

Pit sealed

The pit was sealed by the administration on Tuesday after ittook out all the polythene packets found there. Police detected the pit on Saturday last.

On Sunday alone, a total of 132 polythene bags were retrieved. A senior police official clarified that all polythene packets did not contain infant body parts and it was difficult to ascertain the number of foetuses recovered. Locals, however, said body parts could have been recovered from over 60 foetuses.

Subsequent raids

The detection of the pit and subsequent raids on the nursing homes and ultrasound clinics led to the arrest of seven persons, including one doctor.

More arrests were likely as owners of several nursing homes were not traceable.

The Health Department has sealed all the eight nursing homes and five ultrasound clinics in the town.

Complicity alleged

Five of these clinics were attached to the nursing homes. Complicity of some government doctors and administration officials has been alleged.

Seven of the eight nursing homes did not have licence.

Of the seven persons arrested, the owner of the clinic that used the pit to dump its waste is the wife of a government doctor who has been on leave for nearly two years.

The Crime Branch sleuths continued to remain clueless about the seven female foetuses recovered near a village close to the town on July 14. That incident brought the foeticide issue to light. No one was arrested.

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