Hyderabad, March 10 (IANS) The Directorate of Enforcement’s (ED) Hyderabad Zonal Office has provisionally attached fifty immovable properties, valued at Rs 29.76 crore, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the illegal surrogacy racket case.

The racket was run by Dr Pachipalli Namratha, alias Athluri Namratha, in the name of Universal Srusthi Fertility & Research Centre.

The attached properties are in the form of land parcels, flats, as well as a hospital in the name of Dr Namratha and her sons and the present market value of these properties is estimated to be around Rs 50 crore, the ED said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Central agency initiated an investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by the Gopalapuram Police Station, Hyderabad, for fraud, cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy, and child trafficking.

Dr Namratha was providing childless couples with newborn babies through a surrogacy racket that she had orchestrated through her clinic, along with her employees and agents, the ED said.

PMLA investigation revealed that Dr Namratha collected huge sums of money from childless couples on the promise of delivering a baby through a surrogate mother. To project the procedure as genuine, their gametes were collected for implantation into a surrogate mother. However, the newborn babies were sourced from poor and vulnerable parents who were unable to raise the child and wanted to abort the pregnancy.

According to the agency, a network of agents and sub-agents was found to be involved in the racket for arranging poor and needy pregnant women and luring them with money to give up their child as soon as the child was born.

Investigation further revealed that Dr Namratha used to 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 Such deliveries were conducted at her hospital in Visakhapatnam, as the license of her Secunderabad hospital was revoked by the authorities. Further, the birth reports forwarded to the municipal authorities were forged by her and reflected the names of childless couples as parents instead of the biological parents.

ED investigation revealed that she had been involved in this racket since 2014 and that she continued the fake surrogacy racket even after multiple cases were registered against her and her medical license was suspended by the authorities.

It also found that several couples were cheated and huge amounts were collected from them by way of cheques and cash. Part of these amounts were paid to the agents/sub-agents as their commission, and also to the biological parents of the trafficked babies.

Analysis of the bank accounts maintained by Dr Namratha confirmed the modus operandi wherein the funds collected from the childless couples were found to have been further utilised for making payments to the agents/sub-agents, and from there, further payments were made to the biological parents of the trafficked babies.

During the PMLA investigation, several properties were identified in the name of Dr Namratha and her sons and payments for many of these properties were found to have been made in cash out of the Proceeds of Crime.

The ED had earlier arrested Dr Namratha on February 12, 2026, under Section 19 of the PMLA, and presently, she is in judicial custody. Further investigation is in progress.

–IANS

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