ISLAMABAD, July 20: Police raided a dubious fertility clinic in the city on Wednesday and arrested four persons for exploiting childless couples' desire for having children and ruining their health in the process.

Police were ordered on July 18 to act against Manzoor Hussain for running a racket after an inquiry by local authorities found that he had been “extracting money from general public in the name of treating infertility”.

Accordingly, the police sent a male and female constable posing as a couple to the clinic on Wednesday morning.

While Manzoor was briefing the undercover police agents about his hefty fees and expensive course of treatment, a police team under Assistant Commissioner Imran Ali Sultan and Superintendent of Police Capt (retired) Mohammad Ilyas raided the clinic, arrested the “specialist doctor” and his alleged accomplices and seized the medicines they used to administer their clients.

Manzoor and his assistants are alleged to have duped and harmed more than 20 couples by their so-called 'synchronised fertility with hormonal balancing” treatment at their clinic they advertised first as American Hospital and then as Fertility and Men's Power Hospital, according to police.

Manzoor's alleged victims claim he charged Rs50,000 for each session of treatment – in all Rs200,000 for giving them more pain and no child.

Although the police action was planned by Inspector General of Police Bani Amin Khan under the direction of Supreme Court, the arrests were made on the complaint filed by an alleged victim of theirs, Mohammad Unsar of Gujrat on July 18.

In fact, Unsar had initiated the process of inquiry early this year by complaining to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that Manzoor's treatment had harmed his kidney and libido.

NAB sent his complaint to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council which eventually led to an inquiry by the district health officer (DHO) of Islamabad into the allegations.

DHO Dr Mohammad Azhar Khan found Unsar's complaint valid and a judicial magistrate ordered that action be taken against the culprits.

Meanwhile, taking notice of the advertisement put out about the inquiry, the Supreme Court called for a report about the issue by July 23.

In his formal complaint lodged with Margalla Police on July 18, Unsar has demanded prosecution of Manzoor Hussain and return of the money he took from him and 18 other persons for the dubious treatment and its ill effects.

“Since evidence is available that the treatment provided by the doctor had put lives of some of his patients in danger, relevant sections of PPC may be added in FIR depending upon the nature and degree of hurt caused in each case,” said the district magistrate of Islamabad in a communication to the Senior Superintendent of Police of the city.