Hyderabad, March 10 (IANS). The Hyderabad regional office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken major action in the illegal surrogacy racket case. The ED has provisionally attached fifty immovable properties worth Rs 29.76 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
This racket was being run by Dr. Pachipalli Namrata alias Athluri Namrata in the name of Universal Srishti Fertility and Research Centre.
The ED said in a statement on Tuesday that the seized properties are in the form of a piece of land, a flat and a hospital, which are in the name of Dr Namrata and her sons, and the current market value of these properties is around Rs 50 crore.
The central agency initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered at Gopalapuram police station in Hyderabad in several cases of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy and child trafficking.
ED said that Dr. Namrata was providing newborn babies to childless couples through a surrogacy racket she was running with her clinic, employees and agents.
PMLA investigation revealed that Dr. Namrata used to extort huge amounts of money from childless couples by promising to have a child through a surrogate mother. To make the process look real, their gametes were implanted into the surrogate mother. However, newborn babies were taken from poor and vulnerable parents who were unable to raise a child and wanted to abort the baby.
According to the agency, a gang of agents and sub-agents were involved in luring poor and needy pregnant women and convincing them to abandon their child soon after birth.
Investigation also revealed that Dr. Namrata used to charge around Rs 3.5 lakh for a girl child and Rs 4.5 lakh for a male child. These deliveries took place at his hospital in Visakhapatnam, as the license of his hospital in Secunderabad was canceled by the authorities. Moreover, in the birth reports sent to the Municipal Corporation, they had registered the names of childless couples instead of biological parents.
ED investigation revealed that she was involved in this racket since 2014 and despite several cases being registered against her and her medical license being suspended by the authorities, she continued the fake surrogacy racket.
The investigation also revealed that several couples were defrauded and huge sums of money were collected from them in the form of checks and cash. Some part of this amount was given to the agents/sub-agents as their commission and also to the biological parents of the trafficked children.
Analysis of Dr. Namratha’s bank accounts confirmed his modus operandi, in which money collected from childless couples was used to make payments to agents/sub-agents, and from there to the biological parents of the trafficked infants.
During the PMLA investigation, several properties were found in the name of Dr. Namratha and his sons and many of these properties were paid for in cash from the proceeds of crime.
Earlier, ED had arrested Dr. Namrata on February 12, 2026 under Section 19 of PMLA and currently she is in judicial custody. Further investigation is ongoing.
–IANS
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