Girl's death in botched abortion: Five including father arrested

Jagatsinghpur: Police today arrested five persons including the owner of a clinic in connection with the death of an unmarried pregnant girl who had died following a botched up abortion in Raghunathpur area of Jagatsinghpur on Monday.

The arrested have been identified as Ajay Sutar father of the deceased girl Siku Sutar of Anolipatana along with Haramani Maharana, the owner of Mamata Clinic in Jagatsinghpur, two nurses Premalata Behera and Lipika Mohanty and an auto driver Abhimanyu Barik.

The body of girl who was seven months pregnant was recovered  from a sack inside Dhalatanga forest range.

As per sources, fearing humiliation on account of his daughter's pregnancy, Ajay took Siku to Mamata Clinic where doctor Haramani Maharana along with his two other staff performed the abortion. However, due to excessive bleeding Siku died at the clinic.

In fear of being caught, Ajay along with the auto driver tied her up in a sack and threw her body at Dhalatanga forest.

"From preliminary investigation, it has been found that Siku underwent illegal abortion at Mamata Clinic and later when she died, her father and the other four accused threw her body at Dhalatanga reserve forest," Tirtol SDPO Shivshankar Mallick said.

"The five accused have been booked under Sections 302 (Murder), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence by hiding body), 313 (Causing miscarriage without woman's consent), 314 (Death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage), Section 23 of Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act and under abatement section," Mallick added.