Thane, February 21 Police in the Thane district of Maharashtra have exposed an egg donation racket that repeatedly exploited poor women, officials said on Saturday. Three women have been arrested in connection with the alleged illegal trade.
The alleged racket, which police suspect could be worth crores of rupees, was operating out of a residential apartment and a sonography center in Joveli, Badlapur East, they said.
Egg donation is a fertility procedure in which a woman provides eggs for another person to conceive, usually via IVF (in vitro fertilization). The donor undergoes screening and hormone treatment, eggs are retrieved, fertilised, and transferred to the recipient.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Sulakshana Gadekar (44), Ashwini Chabukswar (29), and Manjusha Wankhede (46).
Following a tip-off from a victim to Dr Jyotsna Sawant, chief medical officer of the Thane Sub-District Hospital, a raid was recently conducted at Gadekar's residence in Nano City building, police said.
"We recovered photos of injections used in connection with pregnancy, sonography reports, affidavits with false names, fake documents, and evidence of financial transactions on the mobile phones of the accused," a police official said.
The accused targeted needy women, paying them Rs 25,000 to 30,000 per cycle. The victims were allegedly administered hormonal injections to increase egg production and were repeatedly used as donors, leading to physical exploitation, the official said.
"The process involved injecting the women to stimulate egg production and taking them for sonography. Once the eggs were ready, the victims were sent to IVF centers where the eggs were surgically extracted and sold for lakhs of rupees," the official added.
Ulhasnagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Gore said that more than 20 women might have fallen victim to this racket so far.
"The racket was previously operating in Vangani before shifting to Badlapur recently. We are investigating the involvement of IVF centers, doctors, and hospitals. High-profile names are likely to surface as the turnover of this illegal trade is estimated to be in crores," Gore said.
A case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act. The three arrested women were produced before a local court, which remanded them in police custody, said police.
