Gurgaon: A Class 12 passout, who posed as a doctor and conducted abortions at an unregistered clinic, was caught by the health department on Sunday. On Monday, Kamal Mahato was taken into custody by the city police, an investigating officer said.Health officials said Mahato admitted during the raid that he had no medical degree and had studied only up to Class 12, while allegedly charging women Rs 1,200 for abortion pills at Kamal Clinic in Banjara Market in Ghata village.“Neither Mahato nor Kamal Clinic was registered under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act,” an official told TOI. Officials said he failed to produce any patient records or records relating to the purchase, sale or distribution of medicines kept at the clinic.According to a health department official, the civil surgeon received information that Mahato was practising as a doctor and was illegally conducting abortions. A team — comprising PCPNDT nodal officer Dr Devender Singh Solanki and MTP nodal officer Dr Harish Kumar — was constituted to verify the information through a decoy operation.A pregnant woman was sent to the clinic after her consent was obtained. The team handed her Rs 1,200 in pre-recorded currency notes. She told Mahato that she was around two months pregnant and wanted to terminate the pregnancy. Mahato accepted the money, handed over an “Unwanted-Kit” MTP kit and explained how to use the tablets.After the woman signalled the waiting team, officials recovered the marked currency notes from a drawer, with the serial numbers matching those recorded before the operation. Officials also recovered another MTP kit, besides a large quantity of medicines, injections, syrups, IV fluids, syringes and medical equipment, including a thermometer and blood pressure monitor. The seized material was sealed during the proceedings.Gurgaon’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) has fluctuated considerably over the past five years, while Haryana has shown a relatively stable trend with a dip in 2024. The district recorded an SRB of 921 in 2020, which fell to 908 in 2021 before improving to 925 in 2022 and 928 in 2023. However, it dropped sharply to 899 in 2024, the lowest in the six-year period, and recovered only marginally to 901 in 2025. Haryana, meanwhile, recorded an SRB of 922 in 2020, 914 in 2021, 916 in both 2022 and 2023, before slipping to 910 in 2024, its lowest level during the period, and rebounding to 923 in 2025.While Gurgaon outperformed the state in 2022 and 2023, it has remained below the state average since 2024, with a gap of 22 points in 2025. Haryana, which had the worst sex ratio at birth among all states at 834 girls per 1,000 boys during the 2011 Census period, improved its SRB to 923 by 2019 after years of aggressive enforcement under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign. The state has since seen a renewed decline, with the annual SRB falling to 910 in 2024, the lowest level since 2016.
