ED arrests doctor in illegal surrogacy, money laundering case in Hyderabad

The Directorate of Enforcement ED on Friday arrested Dr Athuturi Namratha alias Pachipalli Namratha for alleged money laundering in connection with an illegal surrogacy racketThe EDrsquos Hyderabad Zonal Office arrested the accused under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA 2002 during the course of investigation into an illegal surrogacy racket allegedly run by her in the name of Universal Srusthi Fertility ampamp Research CentreThe central agency said she was produced before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge court which remanded her to judicial custody till February 26According to the ED during her statements recorded after being released on bail in November last year she remained evasive and noncooperative despite being confronted with evidence confirming her role in relation to the proceeds of crime and the offence of money launderingThe agency initiated the investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Gopalapuram police station Hyderabad for charges including fraud cheating criminal conspiracy illegal surrogacy and child traffickingDr Namratha was allegedly providing childless couples with newborn babies through a surrogacy racket she had orchestrated via her clinic along with her employees and agents She and others were earlier arrested by the police during the investigation She was released on bail on November 27 2025During the PMLA investigation statements of Dr Namratha and her associates were recorded in judicial custody and searches were conducted at various premises resulting in the seizure of documents evidencing her alleged involvement in the racket since 2014The investigation revealed that she allegedly continued the illegal surrogacy operations even after multiple cases were registered against her and her medical licence was suspended by the authorities the ED said in a releaseThe ED further alleged 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 newborn babies were allegedly sourced from poor and vulnerable parents who were unable to raise the child and had sought to terminate the pregnancyA network of agents and subagents was found to be involved in the racket arranging poor and needy pregnant women and luring them with money to give up their child soon after birthThe ED claimed that Dr Namratha used to pay around Rs 35 lakh for a female child and Rs 45 lakh for a male child Such deliveries were allegedly conducted at her hospital in Visakhapatnam after the licence of her Secunderabad hospital was revoked by the authoritiesFurther the birth reports forwarded to the municipal authorities were allegedly forged and reflected the names of the childless couples as parents instead of the biological parentsThe investigation also revealed that several couples were allegedly cheated and large sums were collected from them by way of cheque and cash A portion of these amounts was allegedly paid to agents and subagents as commission and to the biological parents of the trafficked babiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever