Maha Woman Dies During Illegal Abortion; Family Caught Burying Body

A woman died during an illegal abortion from a quack medical practitioner in a village of Bagalkot district in Karnataka. The 33-year-old woman underwent a prenatal diagnostic test to undermine the sex of her unborn child and was allegedly forced by her family to abort the foetus as she already had two daughters and the family preferred a male child.  

The woman identified as Sonali (33) from Sangli, Maharashtra, was a mother of two daughters and her family was against having another female child. Due to their preference for a son, the family took the four-month-pregnant Sonali to a quack's clinic in Bagalkot district. 

Maha Woman Dies During Illegal Abortion

After taking a prenatal diagnostic test which is a banned sex determination test in the country, the woman was allegedly forced by her family to get rid of the female foetus and taken to an illegal abortion clinic which was operating out of a house in Mahalingpur, Karnataka. As per the reports, Sonali suffered excessive bleeding during the abortion, which resulted in her death at the unlicensed clinic. 

Fearing the legal repercussions, her family stuffed her body in the car and attempted to take her to their village back in Sangli. However, their attempt to evade under the nose of law enforcement officers failed as on their way to the border check post in Miraj, they were caught red-handed. 

At the border check post on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, the police officers on duty got suspicious of the family car that was transporting the deceased woman in the car. Upon inspection, the officers found Sonali's dead body that her family attempted to transport to their village near Sangli. 

During the interrogation, the family admitted that Sonali died during the illegal process of abortion and three people named Kavita Badanavar, Maruti Babaso Kharat and Vijay Gouli were arrested in connection to the case and a case has been registered under relevant IPC sections against five people out of which three people are arrested. 

The doctor who led the illegal procedure is among the arrested people while further investigation is underway, as reported by a senior police officer of Sangli police. 

Sonali's case, driven by gender preference and obsession over a son, highlights the prevalence of female foeticide in India despite legal prohibitions and underscores the dangers of undergoing illegal medical procedures with unlicensed practitioners.