India police are investigating and searching Sumit and Rajesh Mahawar's pharmaceutical plant after the father and son owners began burning drugs after the death of several Indian women, according to Reuters.
The doctor who conducted sterilization procedures after which 13 women died in central India was arrested, Reuters reported.
Dr. R.K. Gupta had been hiding since Saturday's operations, but was arrested at a relative's home near Bilaspur city late Wednesday, according to Reuters. Gupta denied responsibility for the deaths and blamed medication given to the women after the surgeries.
Gupta has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, local Inspector General of Police Pawan Dev said, Reuters reported. He could face life in prison if found guilty.
A total of 83 women had the surgeries as part of a free government-run mass sterilization campaign and were sent home that evening, but dozens became ill and were rushed in ambulances to private hospitals in Bilaspur, according to The Washington Post.
Gupta had performed the 83 surgeries in six hours, which is a clear breach of government protocol, which prohibits surgeons from performing more than 30 sterilizations in a day, the Post reported.
Investigators were also trying to determine whether the women, all of them poor villagers, had been given tainted medicines, according to Reuters. The patients reported throwing up and complained of dizziness and weakness after they were given medication following the operations.
"I am not guilty. I have been performing surgeries for a long time and there has never been any problem," Gupta told reporters in Bilaspur around the time of his arrest, the Post reported.
"I have a history of completing up to 200-300 surgeries in one day," he added. "There are no written guidelines, but what we have been told verbally is that we shouldn't perform more than 30 operations in a day."
