Sri Lankan doctor illegally sterlized over 4,000 Hindu and Buddhist women: report

A 42-year-old doctor attached to Kurunagela Teaching Hospital is said to have received kickbacks from Arab 'bigshots' of over 40 crores to engage in mass-sterilization procedures, according to a report. The women targeted belonged to Hindu and Buddhist communities.

The doctor, identified as Seigu Siyabdeen Mohamed Saafi, was taken into police remand after numerous complaints were lodged against him.

Siyabdeen's modus operandi was to sterlize women who came for caesarean surgery. He would then remove the womb during the patient's anaesthetic-induced sleep. 

Complaints flurried in the last three days, rising to 150.

The doctor was arrested on May 24 following a police investigation and the case has been taken over by Criminal Investigations Department (CID). A special team consisting of 3 members from the Ceylon Maternal Medical Hospital and 1 member from the Sri Lankan Medical Council has been formed to investigate the case.

Lankan health minister Rajitha Senaratne said that it was impossible for one doctor to have done this spotlessly, there would be hospital staffs who conspired with him. If the doctor is proven guilty, he should be punished in the strictest of laws, he said.