Mid Day

• Docs say tests on 26-week old foetus in cancer-afflicted girl’s womb could kill her

Mumbai, Apr 17: Doctors at KEM Hospital and the police have decided to go slow on the collection of DNA samples of the foetus growing in the womb of 16-year-old Waheeda Ali (name changed).

Said Senior Inspector Dinesh Verma, “The patient is in a critical condition. A DNA sampling at this stage could prove life threatening to the foetus and the mother.”

Waheeda, who is terminally ill with cancer, became pregnant after she was allegedly raped at the Tata Memorial Hospital, where she was operated upon for a cancerous tumor.  

Ward boys interrogated

On Monday, Waheeda was brought to KEM Hospital where a panel of gynaecologists examined her at the police’s request and a third sonography test confirmed she was 26 weeks pregnant.

Later in the day, the police recorded the statements of ward boys and staff nurses deployed in the main operation theatre on November 20, 2006, the day Waheeda was operated for her tumour and the day of the alleged rape.

There are nine people, including the surgeon, who was on duty that day.
Ward boys Sameer Phopkar (25) and Charudatta Gosavi (44) confirmed that Waheeda was brought to the operation theatre around 8.30 am and the operation lasted until 2 pm. Soon after the operation, the patient was moved to the recovery room.

“Cancer patients about to be operated are usually very tense. We understand this and try to instill confidence in them. How can we indulge in such an inhuman act?” said the ward boys.

Anonymous call

Waheeda was upset she could not appear for her SSC exams this year due to her illness. “She was confident of getting a good percentage, but her illness did not permit her, said her father Mohammed Javed Khan.

Meanwhile, the Bhoiwada police, acting on an anonymous phone call on Sunday, left for Goregaon to round a suspect believed to be Waheeda’s boyfriend but returned without success. Waheeda has clarified that she did not have a love affair.