Two Uttar Pradesh-based online pharmacy owners were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly supplying medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits to Gurugram following a joint operation by Haryana’s Police and health department, which also seized 227 kits of the drug that cannot be sold without a prescription from a registered gynaecologist.
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 (Shutterstock)
The arrests come in the wake of Haryana recording its lowest sex ratio at birth in eight years in 2024. The sex ratio at birth, a critical indicator of gender equality, had dipped to 910 female births per 1,000 male births in 2024, a six-points drop from 916 in 2023 and the lowest after 2016, when it stood at 900, triggering concerns.
This is for the first time in a decade after ‘save the girl child’ programme was launched in January 2015 that Haryana has nabbed owners of online pharmacy involved in supply of MTP kits which is illegally used for sex-selective abortions, officials associated with ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme said.
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 gynaecologist that too in the approved MTP centers.
Sources say a wholesale supplier of the medicines to the arrested online pharmacy owners have also been nabbed from UP.
“The supply of MTP kits online is a major racket which the health department has busted after a meticulous crack down. The arrested accused were operating from UP. The crackdown will be further intensified to save the girl child in the state, “ additional chief secretary (ACS-Health) Sudhir Rajpal said who on February 6 had directed the State Drug Controller to closely monitor and curb the menace of illegal sale of MTP pills.
The ACS (health), who also holds the charge of women and child development (WCD) department, has directed concerned officials to conduct inspections of all Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) and ultrasound centers across the state and take legal action against those violating the law.
A senior health department doctor said that many pregnant women who previously ingested MTP kits unlawfully at home (to abort their pregnancies) had to be rushed to the government health centres in life threatening conditions. “Their lives were saved by the doctors and FIRs were registered on disclosure statements of such women against supplier of the MTP kits. These cases are under trial in various courts,” the official said.
Over 1,220 FIRs have been registered under the PC-PNDT/MTP Acts against those involved in female foeticide.
ACS (Health) warned against unlawful abortions and sex determination practices.
Decoy operation
The Food and Drug Administration of Gurugram, along with health officials placed online orders for MTP kits.
Online pharmacies from Ghaziabad and Badaun (UP) supplied the kits on February 11 after receiving payments. MTP kits were delivered to the FDA Haryana ’s official address in Sector 45, Gurgaon.
* FIR registered on February 11 at Sector 40 Police Station, Gurgaon, based on a complaint by health department.
Police, along with FDA and health department teams, raided the supply points in Ghaziabad and Badaun.
Investigations revealed that a Ghaziabad-based online pharmacy had supplied MTP kits illegally without maintaining acquisition records.
Police recovered 191 MTP kits from this pharmacy, which had been supplying them on demand and the owner of the pharmacy was arrested.
At the second online pharmacy in Badaun, police found 36 more illegally stocked MTP kits. The Badaun pharmacy had also supplied large quantities of MTP kits illegally.
