On Friday, 11 skulls and 54 bones probably of fetuses, were found buried in the premises of Kadam Hospital, in Arvi city of Wardha district, about 723 km from Mumbai. A few days before a doctor Dr Rekha Kadam and two nurses Pooja Dhat and Sangita Kale from the same hospital were arrested for allegedly carrying out an abortion on a 13-year-old girl.

The girl’s mother had filed an FIR on January 9 alleging that her daughter was raped by a 17-year-old boy, and an abortion was carried out at the hospital on January 7, when she was five months pregnant. The girl has been shifted to another hospital and reported to be in a stable condition. Based on the complaint Dr Rekha Kadam was arrested on January 10, who had charged Rs 30,000 for the procedure.

Bhanudas Pidurakar, Senior Police Inspector at Arvi police station said that the 17-year-old boy had been sent to a juvenile home and his parents had been arrested for threatening the victim’s mother and all the accused were in judicial custody. He further said that the remains for post-mortem and forensic analysis were sent to Nagpur forensic lab and they were investigating if more abortions were carried out at the hospital. 

The hospital is a maternity and nursing home set up in the 1990s run by a family of doctors including Kumar Singh Kadam, his wife Shailja Kadam, son Niraj Kadam and daughter-in-law Rekha Kadam, and 11 nursing staff. The Police said the foetus was buried inside the hospital’s premises, in a pit dug for a biogas plant and the nurses had helped in it. The other bones were recovered from the same pit. The hospital has been sealed.

Sunil Salunke, Deputy Superintendent of Police stated that the hospital premises were again searched on Friday and the investigation was going on to find more evidence in the case.

Source: The Indian Express