Gurugram, Feb 13 (IANS) A joint team of the Gurugram Police and health department have arrested three accused for allegedly supplying medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits through an online website.
Health officials said that the kits of the drug cannot be sold without a prescription from a registered gynaecologist.
According to the police, on February 11, a complaint was lodged by the Nodal Officer of MTP at Sector-40 Police Station, Gurugram, stating that on February 7, information was received regarding the illegal sale of MTP kits through an online website.
To nab the suspects, a health official ordered an MTP kit from that website. The suspects provided the MTP kit to the health officials. Later the matter was reported to the police.
For the illegal sale of MTP kits, two separate cases were registered against the owner of the website and the owners of the pharmacy store at Sector-40 Police Station, Gurugram, under relevant sections of BNS and relevant sections of the MTP Act.
During the investigation, the police team nabbed the trio accused on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Apoorv Upadhyay (website owner), resident of Badaun, Uttar Pradesh; Satyam Tripathi, resident of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh; and Vipul Tyagi, resident of Loni Road, Delhi. Apoorv Upadhyay was arrested from Badaun and Satyam Tripathi and Vipul Tyagi were arrested from Ghaziabad.
“Apoorv Upadhyay, who used to sell the kit online, has been arrested in one case and accused Satyam Tripathi and Vipul Tyagi have been arrested in another case for illegally selling MTP kits from a pharmacy store named Sarvodaya and Medistore in Ghaziabad,” Sandeep Kumar, spokesperson of the Gurugram police said.
The accused have been taken on police remand for further interrogation.
Meanwhile, health officials say that supplying MTP kits online is patently illegal and that this drug is used only in government hospitals and government-approved private hospitals in case of early medical abortion till nine weeks of pregnancy and in accordance with the law.
The MTP Act provides for medical termination of pregnancy up to nine weeks by use of such MTP Kits and only under the supervision of registered gynaecologists in the approved MTP centres.
–IANS
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