Surrogacy racket: ED grills accused doctor in Hyderabad jail

Hyderabad, Oct 22 (IANS) The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Wednesday started questioning Dr Pachipalli Namratha and other accused in Chanchalguda Jail here in connection with the illegal surrogacy racket.

As part of the probe into alleged money laundering, the ED officials were questioning Dr Namratha, her son Pachipala Jayanth Krishna, Muthipeta Nandini, Dhanasri Santoshi Chitikireddi Kalyani, following permission granted by a city court.

The Nampally criminal court permitted the ED to interrogate the accused in jail till October 28.

Last month, the ED conducted searches in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with an illegal surrogacy racket run by Dr Namratha alias Athluri Namratha in the name of Universal Srusthi Fertility & Research Centre

The Central agency had seized incriminating documents, details of couples defrauded and properties in possession of Dr Namratha.

The agency initiated the investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by the Gopalapuram Police Station, Hyderabad, for fraud, cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy and child trafficking.

Busted in August this year, the racket involved cheating couples through fraudulent IVF and surrogacy packages, infant trafficking, forged records and illegal operations even after the clinic’s license was cancelled in 2021.

About 25 accused were arrested in the case, which is being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Hyderabad Central Crime Station.

Searches conducted by the ED resulted in the seizure of documents, which revealed that Dr Namratha was offering such services to couples across India in different centres in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Kolkata, etc.

The seized documents also revealed that Dr Namratha was involved in these activities for more than 10 years.

She created legal documents in the form of surrogacy agreements to project that the childless couples and carrier (surrogate) themselves approached her, and she was just providing the surrogacy services.

--IANS

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