Highest ever illegal stock of abortion kits seized in Haryana
In last three months, Haryana’s health department has conducted over 30 raids at places allegedly involved in the illegal practice of gender detection.
Haryana government authorities on Tuesday seized a staggering 5,805 medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits from a private residence in Kaithal—the largest such haul ever in the state struggling to ‘save the unborn girl child’, an official aware of the development said.
This massive recovery is a chilling reminder of the scale at which abortion kits are being trafficked and points to how unregulated MTP kits are potentially being used to facilitate illegal sex-selective abortions--- a practice that continues to haunt Haryana, where the sex ratio remains among the most skewed in the country.
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In last three months, Haryana’s health department has conducted over 30 raids at places allegedly involved in the illegal practice of gender detection and registered at least 20 first information reports (FIRs) against MTP kit sellers in the past two months, as per official data.
According to Dr Gaurav Punia, Kaithal district Nodal officer of the PNDT (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques), acting on a tip-off, a joint team of the health department, food and drug administration (FDA), and Haryana State Narcotics Control Bureau (HSNBC) raided a private residential house near Bal Sadan Senior Secondary School in Kaithal on Tuesday morning.
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“Out of the total seized 5,805 MTP kits (worth ₹25 lakh) of different batches and manufacturer, 5,745 kits were sealed and seized, and 60 MTP Kits were taken for sampling,” Dr Punia told Hindustan Times over the phone.
“Each MTP kit contains one Mifepristone (200 mg) tablet and four Misoprostol (200 mcg) tablets. Both are used for terminating pregnancies. These drugs can only be stored or prescribed by registered medical practitioners and that too at authorised medical facilities.”
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The officials said that a case under Section 3, 4, 5 of MTP Act, 1971 has been registered and the accused identified as Vikas Bansal, 47, a resident of a locality near Chandana Gate in Kaithal, who was found in possession of the stock, was arrested.
As per the FIR, two other types of drugs ‘Unwanted 72’ (660 tablets), and ‘Manforce -100’ (3,840 tablets) were also recovered. The accused Bansal, a medical representative, admitted to having distributed these MTP kits for abortions over the last 2-3 years from this rented premises.
Dr G L Singal, an expert and associated with Beti Bachao Beti Padhao flagship programme since its inception in 2015, said: “This is the biggest ever haul... In the history of Haryana, we have not seized such a huge quantity of MTP Kits is a single raid earlier.”
‘One MTP Kit means the life of one unborn child is at stake’
According to Dr Singal, one MTP Kit means the life of one unborn child is at stake. He said at the root of Haryana’s sex ratio at birth going down are these MTP Kits. “After the gender determination test is done illegally, many abortions are done with these MTP Kits,” Dr Singal, save the girl child programme expert, said pointing out that the arrested medical representative cannot store these medicines.
“In 2021 also we had seized 350 MTP kits in Kaithal,” Dr Gaurav Punia said, adding that as per the law of MTP kit can only be used under the supervision of gynaecologist and no chemist can dispense it without prescription of gynaecologist to anyone.
Haryana government recently issued directions for the sale of MTP kits only to approved MTP centres.
Meanwhile, as many as 25 MTP kits were also seized in Hisar on Tuesday in another decoy operation conducted by FDA Hisar when a peddler who supplied 25 MTP kits (Cadila make) was nabbed after receipt of online ₹4,100 as its cost.
In yet another case, the Drugs Control Officer Sonepat conducted decoy operation on Monday and nabbed a woman who allegedly supplied MTP kit for ₹1,500 for inducing abortion to a pregnant decoy. “Two women including the owner of the hospital in Sonepat have been arrested on Monday night by the local police,” officials said.
Alarming dip in SRB spurs crackdown
Facing a sharp drop in the sex ratio at birth (SRB)—from 916 in 2023 to 910 in 2024, the lowest in eight years—Haryana has launched an intensified crackdown on the illegal sale of MTP kits, often used in unlawful and sex-selective abortions.
The dip in SRB, a key indicator of gender imbalance, has set off alarm bells in the state which once celebrated improvements under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign.
The Nayab Singh Saini-led government flagged “weak enforcement” of key laws as a major hurdle and in early 2025 directed health and drug control agencies to act tough.
At the heart of the crackdown is the growing online black market for MTP kits. In February, two UP-based online pharmacy owners were arrested for illegally supplying MTP kits to Gurugram—an action after which authorities have uncovered a larger network through decoy operations.
In one raid alone, about 200 MTP kits were recovered from a UP-based supplier in February after the health and FDA officials placed an online order and got the kits delivered with usage instructions.
Officials say MTP kits—legal only for use under medical supervision at approved centres for pregnancies up to nine weeks—are being misused in unsafe, unsupervised abortions, often with life-threatening consequences.
So far, over 1,220 FIRs have been registered under the PC-PNDT and MTP Acts, including 400-plus after inter-state raids. Simultaneously, 379 of the state’s 1,500 registered MTP centres have been shut and 16 more suspended in just one month, officials said.
As Haryana’s flagship save the girl child campaign falters, authorities are scrambling to plug the gaps—in enforcement, surveillance, and awareness—before the SRB crisis deepens further.
