Hyderabad North Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police S. Rashmi Perumal pointing at accused in the illegal surrogacy network which operated from Universal Srusthi Fertility Centre in Hyderabad, on the sidelines of a press conference in Secunderabad on Tuesday (August 12, 2025)
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Hyderabad police have arrested 25 people, including doctors, lab technicians, supervisors, agents and birth parents, in connection with the illegal surrogacy and child trafficking racket operated under the guise of fertility treatment. The network, operating from the Universal Srushti Fertility Centre in Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam, is accused of defrauding desperate couples and trafficking babies through a web of medical deceit and forged documents.
The accused were identified as Athaluri Namratha alias Pachipala Namratha, doctor and owner of Universal Srushti Fertility Centre and her son Pachipala S.S. Jayanth Krishna, advocate; Chitikireddi Kalyani Atchayyamma, manager at the Visakhapatnam branch; Gollamandala Chenna Rao, lab technician and embryologist and his wife Gollamandala Surekha, nurse; Nargula Sadanandam, anaesthesiologist at Gandhi Hospital; Maranganti Pavan Mohan Krishna, supervisor and main accountant; Arimlli Vidyullatha, paediatrician; Pulumuru Usha Devi, gynaecologist; Vasupalli Ravi, anaesthesiologist at Vizag; and Bingi Ramya, junior embryologist at Vizag. The birth parents arrested include Mohammed Ali Adik and Nasreen Begum from Assam, and Kodamala Karuna Sree from Vijayawada.
The arrested agents and sub-agents include Dhanasri Santoshi, main agent; Muthipeta Nandhini; Harsha Roy; Mohammed Asha Begum; Nayan Das from Bihar; Shahina from Nampally; Kodoor Ratnam and Kona Meenakshi from Visakhapatnam; Bagalam Saroja alias Balagam Saroja, main agent from Vijayawada; Jinugu Vijay Kumar from Khammam; and Kantipidi Yamuna from Khammam.
The arrests follow an investigation into an initial case registered at Gopalapuram police on July 27 against Namratha and her associates for allegedly cheating a couple with a fake surrogacy arrangement. As the probe widened, eight more criminal cases were filed, with multiple victims coming forward to report similar experiences. Police say couples were charged between ₹30–40 lakh, while vulnerable mothers were paid a fraction of that amount, ₹3.5 lakh for a girl and ₹4.5 lakh for a boy, for their babies.
Investigators alleged Namrata built a nationwide network of agents, sub-agents and medical staff who procured babies from vulnerable women and passed them off to clients as their own, backed by falsified DNA and medical reports. . Police say the racket exploited both the emotional distress of childless couples and the poverty of the birth mothers, in blatant violation of surrogacy laws and child protection provisions.
According to police, Namrata — who already faces about 15 other criminal cases in different cities — operated fertility clinics in Secunderabad, Kondapur, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Nellore, Rajahmundry, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
All those arrested have been produced before court and remanded to judicial custody. The cases are being transferred to the Central Crime Station’s Special Investigation Team.
Published – August 12, 2025 03:45 pm IST
