Man held in Haryana for selling gender-test kit

A Delhi-based man has been arrested for selling kits to people to help them illegally decide the gender of their unborn child, officials said Tuesday.

State health department secretary and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Rakesh Gupta said Sanjay Khatana of Delhi was arrested after being caught red-handed by a three-member team of health officials.

"The accused attracted couples desiring to have a male child through a website - www.babygenderchoose.com - and after obtaining the request and money, he sent them the kits through courier. He runs an office on Lawrence Road in Delhi. The accused used to sell a kit for Rs.6,000," Gupta said.

The health officials set up a decoy customer, Gunjan Malhotra, who sought two kits from Khatana and paid Rs.12,000.

"The accused (who came to deliver the kits) described the procedure of taking medicine and assured that he had given these kits to about 60-70 couples in Punjab and Haryana and had not received any complaint. He said the success rate was almost 100 percent and they need not worry," Gupta said.

On the complaint of the FDA officials, police arrested Khatana and booked him under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act.

Gupta said the three-member team that nabbed the accused comprised Gurgaon drug control officer Amandeep and deputy civil surgeons Saryu Sharma and Vijay.

He said the decoy customer and Sharma called the accused to Khandsa Road in Gurgaon for delivering two kits for conceiving a boy.

They paid the accused for two kits. Sharma, who posed as a private practitioner, had put her signature on four currency notes, based on which Khatana was arrested.

She told the accused that Gunjan Malhotra has three daughters and she wanted a boy this time.

Under the PNDT Act, anyone found guilty can be jailed for up to three years or fined Rs.1 lakh or both.