Continuing investigations into the sex determination racket busted by the Baiyappanahalli police in October last year, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials who took over the investigations arrested another person, identified as Siddhesh, on Thursday and seized a third scanning machine from him.
Earlier this month, the CID officials arrested Lakshman Gowda M., owner of Avishkar Brothers Biomedical Private Limited in Mangaluru, for allegedly supplying three scanning machines to the accused who were part of the racket. The accused were licensed holders for procurement, repair, and sale of scanning machines who sold them to Dr. Mallikarjuna, who in turn passed it on to the accused illegally without valid authorization.
While the officials had recovered two machines earlier during the investigations, Siddhesh was absconding along with the third machine.
Siddhesh 34, a native of Davangere caught from K.R. Pete, is among 18 accused in the racket. His job was to ferry customers and also transport machines from one scanning centre to another, a senior officer leading investigation said.
The incident came to light in October last year when the night beat police, during a routine vehicle check around Old Madras Road, stopped the accused Veeresh and Gowda - the first arrests - who were taking a pregnant woman to Mandya in a vehicle but sped away without stopping. The police gave a hot chase and nabbed them at the NGEF signal.
Investigations revealed that the accused used to take pregnant women to a jaggery making unit in Mandya, where they had a medical set-up consisting of a scan and ultrasound machines. The accused used to abort girl foetuses after determining the gender. For each scan, they used to charge ₹ 18,000-20,000. Seven women were found there when the police raided the place.
