Chennai, March 11 (IANS): The police have arrested a 53-year-old quack for running sex determination scan centres in the remote area of Tamil Nadu's Tiruppathur district.

Sugumar was arrested on Thursday and produced before a judicial magistrate court and was remanded to judicial custody.

According to the police, Sugumar and his accomplice and AIADMK worker, Vediyappan used to charge Rs 8,000 per fetus determination test and daily he scanned around ten pregnant women in the remote areas.

Directorate of Medical Service authorities conducted a surprise check at Kathirappati village, 8 km from Tirupathur where there are no proper roads and heavy vehicles cannot reach the place.

Officials of the Directorate of Medical services said that he was using a portable scanning machine to run the illegal sex determination scan centres at various places of the district.

Tirupathur health authorities told IANS that the portable scanning machines are banned in the country and a proper investigation has to be conducted to find out the source from where he brought the machine.

Police and Medical service authority officials said that the women from Dharmapuri and Tiruvannamalai had reached his scan centre to determine the sex of the child in the womb.

Sources in the state police told IANS that Sugumar has been arrested earlier also, but after coming out of judicial custody, he continues with the same work but in a different place.