Ever since Tuesday, when a judge in Palwal sentenced a doctor and his assistant to two years in prison and slapped a Rs 5,000 fine—the first conviction with a prison term under the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act—the phone has not stopped ringing at the Gurgaon home of Dr Baljit Singh Dahiya.

Because five years ago, Dahiya, who retired as Haryana Director General of Health in 2005, and a small team began a war against unscrupulous doctors in a state which today has the second lowest sex ratio in the country.

He was the first to use in-built provisions in the Act to raid and chargesheet doctors willing to abort female foetus for a hefty fee.

“We booked 26 cases of violation of the PNDT Act in one year (2001-2002) and Dr Anil Sabsani (who has been convicted) was one among them,” Dr Dahiya told The Indian Express. He was then a civil surgeon and the appropriate authority under the PNDT Act. Of the 26 cases, chargesheets have been filed in 24.

“We had no spy-cameras to catch doctors red-handed. It took months of intelligence gathering, planning, raising a committed team before raiding a sex-determination clinic,” he said.

Post-retirement, he’s still travelling, motivating others like him to keep up the pressure.

“When I heard the decision of the court, my first instinct was to call all members of my team and congratulate them. Some of them are still working with the government and they are doing the follow-up in the courts,” he said.

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