CHANDIGARH, June 22 -- Haryana's health department busted a prenatal sex determination racket in Bihar's Gaya district, leading to the arrest of four people on Sunday, in what was a first such raid conducted by Haryana in Bihar ever since the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign was launched from Panipat in January 2015. The officials who planned this operation said that the inter-state raid involved the use of a GPS tracking device that was fitted in advance in the cab hired to carry two touts, a decoy pregnant woman, her mother-in-law and a dummy husband from Jhajjar district to Gaya to undergo ultrasound test at an unregistered facility to find out the gender of the foetus. According to Sandeep Kumar, nodal officer (PCPNDT) in Jhajjar district, who led the operation, the team comprising four doctors from Jhajjar and Charkhi Dadri districts also had one male and two female police personnel. The seven member team travelled in two cabs and tracked the main vehicle's movement in real time during their 18-hour-long journey that began on June 19 evening. They reached Shiv Shakti ultrasound centre at Devdharpur village under Tikari Police Station in Gaya, which was being run by a bogus radiologist, at 4pm on June 20 after which the illegal racket was exposed. Officials said Haryana teams had informed Bihar authorities about the operation in advance and received full cooperation from local officials. The first information report (FIR) was lodged at Tikari Police Station (copy of which is with HT) after midnight on June 21 under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and multiple provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT-Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act on the complaint of Dr Mohammed Rashid Iqbal, posted at a local government health facility. The FIR says that a team comprising officials of Haryana and Bihar governments carried out a raid at an unregistered ultrasound centre suspected of illegally determining the sex of foetuses. The FIR says that the ultrasound centre was operating in violation of the PCPNDT Act and was being misused for prenatal sex determination, which is prohibited under the law. During the raid, FIR says, officials seized an unregistered ultrasound machine, multiple mobile phones, ultrasound reports, and other records. Seven people have been named in the FIR, including Dr PN Chaudhry, whose seal was allegedly used by the ultrasound centre. And those arrested are two Bihar residents, Ramashraya Prasad (who was running the facility); Gulshan Kumar (self-styled radiologist); and two touts Surender and Rakesh Yadav (both residents of Jhajjar in Haryana). "I commend the teams from Jhajjar and Charkhi Dadri on this successful raid...the district administration is geared up and motivated to continue cracking down on illegal activities," said Varsha Khangwal, deputy commissioner (DC) Jhajjar."This raid is an excellent example of intrastate and interstate coordination involving multiple departments. Such raids and efforts are vital for curbing female foeticide in the country. This is the first such raid Haryana has conducted in Bihar," said Dr GL Singal, an expert associated with save the girl child programme since beginning. The raid was conducted after Jhajjar district health authorities received a tip-off that the now arrested two touts were luring the families of the expectant mothers to undergo illegal sex determination tests in Bihar. The touts charged Rs.50,000 per case and ferried pregnant women from Haryana to Bihar for the illegal procedure. Dr Sandeep Kumar, nodal officer (PCPNDT) in Jhajjar district, said a social worker volunteered to act as a dummy husband of a pregnant woman, who volunteered to become a decoy to crack the racket. The mother-in-law of the pregnant woman also came forward to assist. The last leg of the operation, spanning nearly 18 hours, began on June 19 at 10 pm. The journey concluded at around 4 pm on June 20 after which the accused were nabbed. Officials said that to crack the racket, the dummy husband contacted the touts and negotiated a deal. The group initially planned to travel by train, but owing to the summer rush and non-availability of tickets, a cab was hired. The Jhajjar district nodal officer (PCPNDT) Dr Kumar said two vehicles carrying the raiding parties chased the main cab throughout the journey, monitoring its movement through live feeds and staying in constant touch with the decoy couple via Whatsapp. The convoy reached Gaya around 4 pm on June 20. Officials said that at the illegal centre, an ultrasound examination was conducted and the operator allegedly disclosed that the foetus was male. "The dummy husband then told the bogus radiologist that he was stepping out to buy sweets to celebrate the news," Dr Kumar said, adding that as soon as the dummy husband came out and gave a signal, the waiting teams rushed in and raided the centre. "The person operating the ultrasound machine was not a qualified radiologist...This quack has allegedly been running the machine illegally for the past five years. He had reportedly learnt to operate the machine in Uttar Pradesh and had been posing as a certified radiologist ever since."...