Surgeon held over botched Indian sterilisations

RAIPUR-

Indian police announced Thursday they had detained the doctor behind botched mass sterilisation surgeries that left 13 women dead, as campaigners called for urgent reform of the government´s family planning programme.

R.K Gupta was seized for questioning amid mounting anger over the tragedy in central Chhattisgarh state where women were paid to undergo a procedure that also left dozens in hospital, senior police officers said.

The doctor carried out 83 operations in just five hours on the impoverished women, who were paid 1,400 rupees ($23) at a state-run camp in Bilaspur district at the weekend.

“He has been taken into custody. He will be produced in the court in the afternoon today. He is likely to be arrested soon after,” police inspector general Pawan Deo said from Bilaspur.

Police were planning to seize equipment used during the operations, Deo said, amid fears that it was contaminated before the operations were carried out.

Gupta said he was under pressure from the state government to perform the operations, while also blaming the drugs used.

“It was not my fault — the administration pressured me to meet targets,” the doctor was quoted by NDTV as saying as he was being detained on Wednesday night.

“The surgeries went well but the problem was with the medicines given to the women,” he also alleged.

The state government has banned the sale of six drugs used during the operations over concerns they were substandard, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Sterilisation is one of the most popular methods of family planning in India, and many state governments organise mass camps where rural women can undergo the usually straightforward procedure.

Although the surgery is voluntary, rights groups say the target-driven nature of the programme has led to women being coerced into being sterilised, often in inadequate medical facilities.