Hyderabad Police Crack Down on Surrogacy Racket: 25 Arrested, Including Doctors and Technicians

Quick Summary

• Hyderabad police arrested 25 individuals, including doctors, agents, and birth parents, implicated in an illegal surrogacy and child trafficking racket.
• The network operated from Worldwide srushti Fertility Centres located in Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam.
• Key accused include Dr.Athaluri Namratha (clinic owner), her son Pachipala S.S. Jayanth Krishna, medical staff such as doctors and embryologists, as well as agents facilitating the operations.
• Victims included desperate childless couples charged ₹30-40 lakh ($36-48k) for fake surrogacy arrangements using falsified DNA and medical reports; vulnerable women who supplied babies were paid significantly less – ₹3.5 lakh ($4k) for a girl or ₹4.5 lakh ($5.5k) for a boy.
• The examination began on July 27 with a case at Gopalapuram police station involving fake surrogacy fraud; it has since expanded to eight additional cases nationwide involving false documentation and blatant violation of legal protections.
• Namratha allegedly built a vast network spanning multiple cities like Vijayawada,Nellore,Bhubaneswar,etc., despite already facing 15 criminal charges elsewhere.
• All accused are in judicial custody while the Central Crime Station’s Special Investigation Team is handling further investigations.

Indian Opinion Analysis

This incident highlights alarming violations within India’s healthcare sector where unregulated players exploit both societal desperation for parenthood and economic vulnerabilities of impoverished women. While stringent laws exist to govern surrogacy practices (e.g., Surrogacy Regulation Act), this case underscores potential gaps in enforcement mechanisms that allow rogue operators to persist undetected across states.

For India’s already burdened justice system-tasked with addressing human trafficking alongside medical ethics violations-this presents yet another test of its ability to hold powerful networks accountable swiftly.Public trust in fertility treatments could suffer without visible regulatory overhaul or prompt prosecution outcomes here.

Law enforcement must also explore whether systemic reforms within fertility clinics nationwide can prevent similar exploitative setups from emerging due to inadequate oversight or ethical loopholes around assisted reproductive technologies.

Read more