Harihar Hospital. Telegraph picture

Balangir, Aug. 8: Following complaints of illegal practices such as female foeticide and pre-natal determination of sex, a special squad of Balangir police last evening raided and later sealed Harihar Hospital. The hospital was allegedly being run illegally for the last nine years.

The doctor who owns the hospital, however, managed to escape during the raid. The police are waiting for the report of the special squad before registering any case.

Dr Narendra Kumar Sahu had opened a clinic in Sudpada locality of the town in the 90’s. Later, he converted the clinic into a 24-bedded hospital in the name of his wife Jyotirmayee Sahu. During the raid, Sahu couldn’t produce any document permitting him to run the hospital. The police found some diagnostic equipment on the hospital premises used for determination sex of foetuses.

Sahu had named his wife Jyotirmayee, a homemaker, as the owner of the hospital. The police said the hospital was running without a license since 2002. Ranjan Pattnaik, the inspector who led the special squad of the police, said that they had earlier received several complaints of malpractices, such as pre-natal determination of sex and female foeticide, in the said hospital.

Balangir superintendent of police Awinash Kumar ordered the squad to raid the private hospital. “We had received several complaints regarding the hospital. The authorities could not produce papers for the hospital or the available diagnostic equipment. The doctor has absconded, strengthening our doubt that illegal practices were being carried out here. We hope to arrest him soon,” Pattnaik said.

As the doctor fled, the police, with the help of health officials, shifted two patients of Harihar Hospital to district headquarters hospital.

“Twenty patients were undergoing treatment in the hospital during the raid. As the doctor absconded, we discharged 18 of them with medical advice by the health officials. Two serious patients were shifted to the district headquarters hospital. We have sealed the hospital and the medical store on its premises,” Pattnaik said.

He added that the squad was finalising its report. “We are working on the findings of yesterday’s raid at the hospital and will soon submit our report. The report will form the basis of the FIR against the doctor and his wife,” he said.

Inspector in-charge of Balangir town police station Bimalendu Satapathy said the police were yet to register any case against the accused doctor and his wife. “We have not as yet registered any case as we are waiting for the report of the special squad. The report of the squad will be treated as the FIR and accordingly cases will be registered,” Satapathy said.