The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized approximately ₹50 crore worth of property belonging to Hyderabad-based fertility doctor Dr. Pachipalli Namratha, who is under investigation for allegedly operating an illegal IVF and surrogacy ring. The seizure was made in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on evidence of a larger conspiracy to illegally obtain babies and commit financial fraud.
Major Crackdown by Enforcement Directorate
According to officials, the ED has attached 50 pieces of immovable property, including land, flats, and hospital buildings, associated with Dr. Namratha. While the recorded value of those properties is nearly ₹29.76 crore, their current market value is believed to be closer to ₹50 crore. Many of the properties are registered in Dr. Namratha’s name and the names of her sons.
Investigation into the Illegitimate Surrogacy Ring
The investigation focuses on the Universal Srushti Fertility and Research Center, where Dr. Namratha allegedly ran a fraudulent surrogacy operation for multiple years. Authorities allege that childless couples were offered legitimate IVF and Surrogacy programs, but the clinic instead provided children that had been obtained through illegal means.
Many couples have spent thousands of dollars, believing that embryos made with their own genetic material will be implanted into a surrogate mother, only to find to their shock that the newborn baby (rather than the embryos the couple thought) were actually being bought from at-risk pregnant mothers who were coerced/paid to give up their child for adoption at birth.
According to the ED, the alleged surrogacy scam was established through an extensive network of agents and sub-agents who targeted financially desperate women. The agents allegedly paid the women much less than the large fees that the couples paid for a child by way of the surrogate mother’s egg and/or surrogate mother.
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There Are Babies For Sale
The reports detail how the surrogacy scam worked, and they are disturbing. Women were typically paid ₹3.5 lakhs per female child or ₹4.5 lakhs per male child; they were much less than the large fees charged to couples who were seeking surrogacy services.
Also included in the complaint are municipal records showing the biological parents of the child were not the commissioning couple; rather, the biological parents of the child were the birth mother.
This business has been ongoing since at least 2014, and investigators have evidence that the surrogacy business continued to operate even after the revocation of the clinic’s licence by the authorities.
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Arrest and Money Laundering Probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has detained Dr. Namratha on February 12, 2026, due to their investigation into money laundering, allegedly related to finances associated with a known surrogacy syndication.
Currently she is being held in judicial custody while further financial transactions and properties are being identified in connection with the surrogacy scandal by the investigators.
Dr. Namratha and several of her co-conspirators have been charged in more than one FIR by Hyderabad Police. Charges include: fraud, conspiracy, illegal surrogacy, and child trafficking.
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Investigation Is Ongoing
The probation officers assigned to the investigation are moving forward with their inquiries by reviewing bank accounts and financial transactions in order to identify other individuals involved in the illegal surrogate network (physicians, agents, facilitators) and determine how much of the proceeds from the alleged illegal surrogacy network.
The continuing investigation has raised many concerns about the abuse of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) procedures and/or the exploitation of women in illegal surrogate-sister networks; therefore, the demand for stricter regulation of fertility clinics in India is on the rise.
