Rs 3.5L for a girl and Rs 4.5L for a boy: ED attaches 50 properties in Srushti Fertility case

Hyderabad: Rs 3.5 lakh for a girl and Rs 4.5 lakh for a boy: This is what biological parents, a majority from marginalised poor families, were allegedly paid in Srushti Fertility and Research Centre's illegal surrogacy and baby trafficking racket.

This was uncovered by the investigation of the Hyderabad Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Sleuths of ED here have provisionally attached 50 immovable properties valued at Rs 29.76 crore in the investigation into the illegal surrogacy racket allegedly run by Dr Pachipalli Namratha alias Athluri Namratha in the name of Universal Srusthi Fertility and Research Centre.

The attached properties are in the form of land parcels, flats, and a hospital in the name of Dr Namratha and her sons. The current market value of these properties is estimated to be around Rs 50 crore.

What is the illegal surrogacy racket about?

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

The ED found that Dr Namratha was providing childless couples with newborns through a surrogacy racket that she had orchestrated through her clinic, along with her employees and agents.

A team of agents to lure poor pregnant women

The PMLA investigation revealed that Dr Namratha collected huge sums of money from childless couples on the promise of delivering a baby through a surrogate mother. To project the procedure as genuine, their gametes were collected for implantation into a surrogate mother.

However, the newborns were sourced from poor and vulnerable parents who were unable to raise the child and wanted to abort the pregnancy. A network of agents and sub-agents was found to be involved in the racket for arranging poor and needy pregnant women and luring them with money to give up their child as soon as the child was born.

Dr Namratha’s license for Secunderabad hospital was revoked

The investigation further revealed that Dr Namratha used to pay around Rs 3.5 lakh for a female child and Rs 4.5 lakh for a male child. Such deliveries were conducted at her hospital in Visakhapatnam, as the license of her Secunderabad hospital was revoked by the authorities.

Further, the birth reports forwarded to the municipal authorities were forged by her and reflected the names of childless couples as parents instead of the biological parents.

The ED investigation revealed that she had been involved in this racket since 2014 and that she continued the fake surrogacy racket even after multiple cases were registered against him and her medical license was suspended by the authorities.

How was the racket organised?

Several couples were said to have been cheated in the aforesaid manner, and huge amounts were collected from them by way of cheque and cash. Part of these amounts was paid to the agents/sub-agents as their commission and to the biological parents of the trafficked babies.

Analysis of the bank accounts maintained by Dr Namratha confirmed the modus operandi wherein the funds collected from the childless couples were found to have been further utilised for making payments to the agents/sub-agents and from there, further payments were made to the biological parents of the trafficked babies.

During the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) investigation, several properties were identified in the name of Dr Namratha and her sons and payments for many of these properties were found to have been made in cash out of the Proceeds of Crime. ED had earlier arrested Dr Namratha on February 12 under Section 19 of the PMLA.

Currently, she is in judicial custody.