Illegal IVF scam: Hyderabad Police made 25 arrests and booked nine cases New

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The Gopalapuram police of the North Zone has so far made 25 arrests in the widening probe into an alleged illegal surrogacy and baby-selling racket linked to a well-known in vitro fertilisation (IVF) chain in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh.
The police have so far registered nine cases as more victims are continuing to come forward. The most recent complaint was filed just two days ago, an officer supervising the investigation said. The couple have been cheated using the same mode of operation by the clinic.
The racket, which police say was run under the cover of fertility treatment, came to light after raids on the Gopalapuram and Visakhapatnam branches of Universal Srushti Fertility Centres in July. The prime accused, 64-year-old Athaluri Namratha alias Pachipala Namratha, operated the clinics without valid licences, performing embryo creation and implantation procedures in violation of medical regulations, according to DCP (North) S. Rashmi Perumal.
Investigators say that Namratha, along with her son Pachipala Jayanth Krishna, 25, and several associates, lured childless couples into paying between ₹20 lakh and ₹30 lakh for fraudulent surrogacy arrangements. Babies were procured from women persuaded to carry unwanted pregnancies to term for money, then handed over with forged documents claiming the clients as biological parents.
The case that exposed the racket involved a Hyderabad couple who were given a newborn and a falsified birth certificate, only to discover through DNA testing that the child was unrelated to them. The biological parents, migrants from Assam, were also arrested.
Police believe the number of victims will rise, with more complaints expected in the coming weeks.
Published – August 10, 2025 08:09 PM is