7 min readAug 28, 2026 08:53 AM IST First published on: Aug 28, 2026 at 08:50 AM ISTA pregnant woman was about to walk into a sting. Health officials in Maharashtra had received a tip that an agent was taking expectant mothers from Akola to Buldhana for illegal foetal sex determination tests and abortions. Instead of waiting for another complaint, they sent a pregnant woman as a decoy, hoping she would be offered the service banned under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.On August 1, the operation ended with officials seizing a portable tablet-based sonography machine and medicines from an unregistered centre. Three people were booked. The decoy worked and exposed something Maharashtra’s health department says is becoming increasingly common: illegal sex determination and abortions are moving away from registered clinics into homes, temporary premises and portable machines that are far harder to detect.