On Wednesday, a Gurgaon doctor was sentenced to five years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 for carrying out illegal termination of pregnancies.

In January 2017, Shahid Ali Qureshi was arrested in a raid conducted by a team led by the then deputy civil surgeon of Gurgaon and police in the doctor’s clinic.

During the trial, additional district judge Sanjay Kumar Sharma observed that Qureshi conducted termination of pregnancies by violating the laws and without any approval from the government agencies concerned. Dr Neelam Thapar, the then deputy civil surgeon of Gurgaon had informed police about the raid on Jannat Hospital and a team of police also joined her to expose the illegal procedure done in the clinic.

The team led by the deputy civil surgeon claimed that the doctor was found performing illegal abortion by giving medicines to a pregnant woman. A police officer said that medicines, ultra sound reports and other medical reports were detained from the spot, also the team recovered the cash received by the clinic for conducting abortions.

After the raid, a case was registered against the doctor and the clinic under sections 312 (whoever voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry), 315 (whoever before the birth of any child does any act with the intention of thereby preventing the child from being born alive or causing it to die after its birth), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and sections 3, 4, 5 MTP Act 1971 and sections 15(2), 15(3) IMC Act 1956 and sections 18A, 28 of DC Act 1940.

On Wednesday, the court held Qureshi guilty and awarded him five years of severe imprisonment apart from a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the basis of the police investigation and the evidences submitted by the investigators. The doctor will have to spend one more year in the prison if he fails to pay the fine, according to the court.