Ashiq Hussain
SRINAGAR: A local court in Kashmir has sentenced a doctor running a private clinic along with its staff, to varying degrees of rigorous jail punishment, over the death of a young woman during illegal termination of her pregnancy in 2003.
Police investigations had revealed that the 25-year-old unmarried victim, in an advanced (sixth month) stage of her pregnancy, was dumped outside a government hospital following an illegal abortion attempt by Dr Ghulam Nabi Bhat in his clinic in Srinagar.
Police informed that post-mortem attributed woman’s death to incomplete abortion which was done secretly to “conceal an illicit relationship”.
“The incident of abortion was an illustration of how far the civilised social order has drifted away from the very foundation on which it once came to be called as civilised,” quoted the judgment of principal sessions judge, Mohammad Shafi Khan.
In total, five persons were held responsible including Dr Bhat, his brother and assistant in the clinic Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, the woman’s alleged lover Mohammad Altaf Hajam , his accomplice Reyaz Ahmad Dar and midwife Safia.
The doctor, boyfriend of the victim and his accomplice have been awarded 10 years of rigorous punishment along with fine up-to Rs. 50,000.
Apparently in a very emotional state, the judge lamented lack of proper deterrent for cause of such incidents.
“Before the laws are made more stringent and inescapable, scruples of every individual of the society have to be awoken for which collective effort is required from judiciary, executive and the masses. The time was ripe to identify and shovel out the rotten contents lest it degrade the entire basket,” Khan said in the judgment.
Police said that the victim was brought to Jhelum Diagnostic Center by Budgam resident Altaf Hajam after he “developed intimate relations with the woman, and once coming to know about the pregnancy wanted her to abort the foetus”.
The court observed that she was subjected to the ‘induced abortion following which she died and was thrown outside SMHS hospital using a car of Reyaz Ahmad Dar’.
Police had recovered the body of the woman near Causality Section of SMHS Hospital on February 21, 2003. A piece of paper with the name of a clinic—Jhelum Diagnostic Centre –was recovered from the body leading police to raid the clinic and seize its records.
While lambasting the doctor for his misdeeds and involvement in similar other cases, the judge has urged people for introspection.
“I do not know what pleas the eliminated life would put forth before God, but certainly it has posed certain questions to us and we must find its answers” the court observed.
(Hindustan Times)
