Gurgaon: On Thursday morning, a pregnant woman boarded a bus from Delhi to UP. She had just paid Rs 25,000 to her companion, a woman who promised to tell her whether she was carrying a boy or a girl.Hours later, a joint team from Haryana and UP stormed a house in Bijnor district and arrested two persons for allegedly being part of an interstate sex determination racket.The pregnant woman had been a plant, part of a carefully planned decoy operation by Gurgaon health authorities under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.The plan took shape after Gurgaon authorities received intelligence that many women from the district were going to Bijnor for illegal prenatal sex determination tests. Led by nodal officer Devender Singh Salokhi and medical officer Harish Kumar, the joint operation included Bijnor PCPNDT nodal officer Rajendra Prasad Vishwakarma and nayab tehsildar Ajay Singh Rana.According to officials, the racket was being run through a woman identified as Renu, who allegedly acted as a middleman and charged between Rs 25,000 and Rs 40,000 to arrange the tests.An official said, “She demanded Rs 25,000 from the decoy, asking her to transfer Rs 5,000 online and bring the remaining Rs 20,000 in cash. Investigators transferred the amount through UPI and arranged marked currency notes.”On Thursday morning, the pregnant woman met Renu near New Delhi Railway Station. After taking the cash, Renu took her by bus to Noorpur in Bijnor district. During the journey, she deposited Rs 19,000 in a Bank of India account, officials said.Investigators said Renu contacted a person identified as Sonu, following which a car arrived and took the women to a house on Chandpur Road. Inside, a man identified as Manoj Kumar allegedly conducted an ultrasound examination using a portable machine and informed the woman about the sex of the fetus.The moment the disclosure was made, the decoy gave a signal to the team, who rushed in and arrested Manoj and Renu.During questioning, officials learned that Manoj had studied till Class XII, and was therefore not qualified to perform ultrasound examinations. The house where the procedure was conducted was not registered under PCPNDT Act either.The team seized a portable LOGIQ e ultrasound machine, probe, charger, ultrasound gel and other equipment. Investigators also found evidence of online transactions and recovered the marked currency notes.Authorities suspect the network may have conducted illegal abortions when the fetus was found to be female.
