KOLHAPUR: A doctor couple from Akluj in Solapur district has been arrested for carrying out illegal abortions at their maternity hospital. A local court on Friday remanded them in police custody till August 28 for illegally terminating as many as 36 female fetuses in the last 18 months.Tejas Gandhi and his wife Priya carried out five sex determination tests and 36 abortions at their facility, said the police. The district health administration raided their hospital on August 24 after Satara district civil surgeon Shrikant Bhoi got a complaint from activist Varsha Deshpande. Bhoi informed the Solapur civil surgeon Mallikarjun Pattanshetti , and that led to the raid and arrest.The illegal abortions heighten the concern over the state’s child sex ratio: the ratio of newborn girls per 1,000 boys went down from 907 in 2015 to 899 in 2016.In the first week of March, the Sangli police arrested homeopath Babasaheb Khidrapure for allegedly conducting illegal abortions at his clinic; 19 fetuses were found in the nullah behind his clinic.Solapur district authorities said the team that raided the Siya maternity hospital on August 24 found that certain provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, were being violated. A case was filed against the couple under Indian Penal Code section 312 (causing miscarriage for which jail term is of three years) and section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence)Inspector Arun Sawant from Akluj said the police were trying to find out how the fetuses were disposed of and whether there was any racket involved. Solapur district authorities were likely to carry out searches at all maternity homes in the district.Tejas is the son of Pradip Gandhi, who is also a doctor. Cases were registered against both for carrying out illegal abortions between 2007 and 2010 too. Activists have demanded a thorough probe as they believe that the authorities knew about the couple’s activities.Deshpande pointed out that the activities of the doctor couple were not being monitored by the police even after Tejas Gandhi was found to have been involved in illegal abortion cases earlier.