Chennai, March 11 (BPNS)

Tiruppathur police arrested a 53-year-old quack, Sugumar, posing as a doctor and conducting scanning in the remote areas of the district adjacent to forest areas. He was arrested on Thursday and produced before a judicial magistrate court and was remanded in judicial custody.

According to police, Sugumar and his accomplice and AIADMK worker, Vediyappan used to charge Rs 8000 per fetus determination test and daily he scans around ten pregnant women in the remote areas.

Directorate of Medical Service authorities conducted a surprise check at Kathirappati village 8 km from Tirupathur. There are no proper roads in this area and heavy vehicles are not able to reach the place.

Officials of the Directorate of Medical services said that he was using a portable scanning machine to run the illegal sex determination scan centres at various places of the district.

Tirupathur health authorities told bpNS that the portable scanning machines are banned in the country and a proper investigation has to be conducted to find out the source from where he has brought the machine.

Police and Medical service authority officials said that women from Dharmapuri and Tiruvannamalai had reached his scan centre to determine the sex of the child in the womb.

Sources in the state police told BPNS that Sugumar was arrested multiple times but after coming out of judicial custody, he continues with the same work but in a different place.