ISLAMABAD: Three doctors from a private clinic have been booked for inducing a miscarriage.

A man had approached the Ramna police to lodge a complaint against the doctors regarding his wife’s miscarriage, police said. In response, the police sent the complaint to its legal department for an opinion and sought assistance from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

In the meantime, the complainant also approached the Islamabad district and sessions court and submitted a petition under CrPC sections 22-A and 22-B, seeking orders to the police to register a case.

Officials said the police were directed to take legal action on Monday, and registered a case under PPC sections 338-A (punishment for Isqat-i-haml), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 419 (punishment for cheating by personation).

The FIR said a childless couple approached a clinic in G-10, which helped them undergo in vitro fertilisation. The process began in January, and the complainant paid Rs300,000 for it in advance. In February, when the process had been completed, a doctor prescribed a medication for the complainant’s wife.

The FIR says the woman began taking the medication and her condition deteriorated soon after. When the complainant approached the doctor and asked to bring his wife to see her, the doctor said there was no need for a visit.

In late February, the couple visited a clinic where the woman was attended to by a paramedic, and it was revealed that the woman was taking a medication prescribed to another patient.

When the issue was brought to the doctor, the FIR alleged that the doctor erased the other patient’s name and wrote the woman’s name instead, and said taking the wrong medication had caused the woman to suffer a miscarriage.

The doctor told the complainant to bring his wife after two months to undergo the process again, and he was asked to submit Rs150,000. The complainant has also alleged that the clinic used his samples for other couples as well, the FIR said.

When contacted, the complainant – who is a doctor by profession – requested anonymity and said the clinic was not registered with the PMDC.

Ramna Station House Officer Inspector Gulzar Ahmed said the police had reached out to the PMDC to check the clinic’s status and the doctors working there. A police team also visited the clinic to interrogate the doctors and record their statements, but no one was found there, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2018