Ahmedabad, June 15: Raising her voice against mental and physical torture for not bearing a male child, a 32-year-old woman from the city has accused her Vadodara-based husband and in-laws of forcing her to abort female foetuses five times in the last nine years.
After the woman, Amisha Yagnik, lodged a complaint with the Vastrapur police on Saturday, her husband Priyavadan Bhatt (35) and his parents, Gunvant (67) and Niranjana (64) were arrested. They have been booked under various sections of the Indian penal Code, including 313 (causing miscarriage without a woman’s consent). Further investigations are on, the police said.
Amisha, who at present stays with her parents in the Bodakdev area, said in her complaint that Priyavadan and his parents had forcibly got her to undergo sex determination tests and abort foetuses as they were found to be of females.
Vastrapur Sub-Inspector K R Jhala said: “These forced abortions were done in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007 and in April this year. While four of these abortions were done in Anand, the last one was done at a clinic in Vadodara.”
Amisha and Priyavadan were married on December 12, 2000. A resident of Makarpura in Vadodara, Priyavadan works in a private company, while Gunvant is a retired government servant. The Bhatts, the police said, had shifted from Anand to Vadodara in January 2008. The couple has a five-year-old daughter.
“Amisha has alleged that Priyavadan and his parents subjected her to mental and physical torture for not being able to conceive a male child. She has also mentioned the names of radiologist and gynaecologists who carried out these sex-determination tests and abortions. Some more arrests are likely,” Jhala said.
—–Agencies