New Delhi, February 13 The Enforcement Directorate said on Friday that it has arrested a doctor, who owns a fertility center based in Telangana, on money laundering charges for allegedly running a surrogacy racket.
The doctor has been accused of sourcing infants from poor and vulnerable parents and presenting them as babies born through surrogacy.
Dr Athuluri Namratha, also known as Pachipalli Namratha, the owner of the Hyderabad-based Universal Srushti Fertility Research Centre, was taken into custody on Thursday as she was "evasive and uncooperative" during questioning.
A local court in Nampally, Hyderabad, sent her to judicial custody until February 26, the federal agency said in a statement.
The money laundering case against Namratha stems from a First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Gopalapuram police station in Hyderabad, which accuses her of fraud, cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy, and child trafficking.
It was alleged that the doctor was providing childless couples with newborn babies since 2014, based on a surrogacy racket that she "orchestrated through her clinic along with her employees and agents."
She was arrested by the state police but was granted bail in the case in November 2025.
An investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found that Dr. Namratha collected "large" sums of money from childless couples, promising them a child through a surrogate mother.
To make the procedure appear legitimate, their gametes were collected for implantation into a surrogate mother, the agency said.
However, the infants were sourced from poor and vulnerable parents who were unable to raise the children and wanted to terminate the pregnancy, it said.
The agency found that a network of agents and sub-agents was involved in the racket to arrange for poor and needy pregnant women. They were "lured" with money to give up their child soon after birth.
"Dr. Namratha would pay around Rs 3.5 lakh for a female child and Rs 4.5 lakh for a male child. Such deliveries were conducted at her hospital in Visakhapatnam, as the license of her Secunderabad hospital had been revoked by the authorities," it said.
The birth reports forwarded to the municipal authorities were allegedly forged by the doctor, and reflected the names of the childless couples as parents instead of the biological parents, the ED said.
The agency claimed that the doctor "continued" the fake surrogacy racket even after multiple cases were registered against her, and her medical license was suspended by the authorities.
The doctor has been accused of sourcing infants from poor and vulnerable parents and presenting them as babies born through surrogacy.
Dr Athuluri Namratha, also known as Pachipalli Namratha, the owner of the Hyderabad-based Universal Srushti Fertility Research Centre, was taken into custody on Thursday as she was "evasive and uncooperative" during questioning.
A local court in Nampally, Hyderabad, sent her to judicial custody until February 26, the federal agency said in a statement.
The money laundering case against Namratha stems from a First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Gopalapuram police station in Hyderabad, which accuses her of fraud, cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy, and child trafficking.
It was alleged that the doctor was providing childless couples with newborn babies since 2014, based on a surrogacy racket that she "orchestrated through her clinic along with her employees and agents."
She was arrested by the state police but was granted bail in the case in November 2025.
An investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found that Dr. Namratha collected "large" sums of money from childless couples, promising them a child through a surrogate mother.
To make the procedure appear legitimate, their gametes were collected for implantation into a surrogate mother, the agency said.
However, the infants were sourced from poor and vulnerable parents who were unable to raise the children and wanted to terminate the pregnancy, it said.
The agency found that a network of agents and sub-agents was involved in the racket to arrange for poor and needy pregnant women. They were "lured" with money to give up their child soon after birth.
"Dr. Namratha would pay around Rs 3.5 lakh for a female child and Rs 4.5 lakh for a male child. Such deliveries were conducted at her hospital in Visakhapatnam, as the license of her Secunderabad hospital had been revoked by the authorities," it said.
The birth reports forwarded to the municipal authorities were allegedly forged by the doctor, and reflected the names of the childless couples as parents instead of the biological parents, the ED said.
The agency claimed that the doctor "continued" the fake surrogacy racket even after multiple cases were registered against her, and her medical license was suspended by the authorities.
