Fertility Clinic in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam Busted for Baby-Selling Racket

A big baby selling racket has been busted in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. A popular fertility clinic was impainted, called Universal Srushti Fertility Centre (also known as Srushti Test Tube Baby Centre). The fertility clinic, ran by Dr Athaluri Namratha has been under investigation since 2020 for cheating couples as well as running a child trafficking and illegal surrogacy racket.

The police have filed 10 plus cases against Dr Namratha and her team. The racket came to light when a couple from Rajasthan, who had paid Rs 35 lakh for a surrogacy process, discovered through a DNA test that the baby they received was not biologically theirs. The child had actually been bought from a poor woman in Hyderabad for Rs 90,000 and handed over to the couple with a forged birth certificate.

Eight persons have been taken into custody thus far. The biological parents of the child, Mohammed Ali Adik and Nasreen Begum, are among them, along with Dr. Namratha, her son Pachipala Jayanth Krishna, clinic manager C Kalyani Atchayyamma, Dr. Nargula Sadanandam, an anesthetist from Gandhi Hospital, lab technician Gollamandala Chenna Rao, and agent Dhanasri Santoshi. After being saved, the infant is now under Shishu Vihar's state care.

The investigation revealed that couples were being tricked into believing they were receiving children born through IVF or surrogacy. The truth is that women come from backgrounds of vulnerability were enticed, and in some cases allegedly coerced, into abandoning their newborns. Victims had been delivered at the Visakhapatnam branch and forged records had been created to reflect the babies were legally born. 

One case from 2020 was reported by a woman stating that her baby had been taken on false promises. In another, a couple discovered they had been scammed after paying for IVF, only to find the procedure had never been completed. In many instances, DNA tests confirmed the occurrences of fraud and other forensic work was completed, confirming fraud occurred.

The police operations based in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam uncovered materials relating to unregulated IVF supplies, fraudulent documentation and other school evidence is in the possession of police. The police agencies involved, on a risk urgent action, have used special strike teams to commence searching for more suspects and victims and have been actively investing more than 50 leads.

Authorities have instructed the public to report suspicious activity, and also continue to warn the public to be diligent while contacting illegal reproductive origins. We understand payments to birth or surrogate mothers occurs in illegal reproductive places, especially commercial surrogacy which was advised against in India. Commercial surrogacy and gestational surrogacy are against the law in India, and taking part in these reproductive processes will cause grievous legal consequences.

DCP Rashmi Perumal stated, "We are committed to dismantling these corrupt networks. Anyone found guilty of such crimes will be held to account through our justice system.