Meerut: Sleuths of Haryana and UP Police’s special investigation team (SIT) on Saturday swooped down on an illegal clinic here which was allegedly conducting prenatal sex-determination tests and booked BSP’s Meerut unit chief, his brother-in-law and four others. The police team found the clinic inside a grocery shop, right opposite a hospital owned by BSP leader Subhash Pradhan. However, Pradhan has trashed the charge saying that he was not involved in day-to-day operations of the hospital.Superintendent of police (SP) Ranvijay Singh told TOI: “A doctor, based in Haryana’s Sonipat, gave information about the racket being run from Meerut’s Partapur locality. He had also sent a customer for verification.”“On Saturday morning, joint teams of Haryana and UP SITs conducted a raid at the shop where a portable ultrasound machine was being used for the prenatal test. But, before we could enter the room, a woman fled with the machine. Four persons were arrested from there. The place is not registered under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act," the SP said.Police named six persons in the FIR and arrested four of them, including Pradhan’s brother-in-law. “The process of bringing women here for test was very secretive to avoid detection,” the SP added.When contacted, Subhash Pradhan denied involvement in the racket.“I own the hospital, it is true. But, I don’t run it. I have given it on rent. The doctors who are running it must be put under scanner and not me,” the BSP leader said.Sex determination clinics catering to Haryana families, which want to know the gender of their unborn child, have sprouted in border districts like Meerut, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Baghpat. With increased enforcement in Haryana, infamous for its skewed sex ratio, couples from the neighbouring state are now rushing to bordering western UP districts for the sex determination tests. According to sources, middlemen in Haryana charge between Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 for the test.

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