Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police have busted a major racket involving commercial surrogacy and illegal human egg trading. Police arrested a mother and son, who acted as agents, and six surrogate mothers. The accused have been found to be in collusion with several fertility centres in Hyderabad, exploiting the desperation of infertile couples for illegal monetary gain.

Police arrested mother Narreddula Laxmi Reddy, 45, and her son Narreddula Narender Reddy, 27.

The arrested surrogate mothers and donors were identified as Golconda Sai Leela, 39, from Bidar District, Karnataka; Malagalla Venkata Laxmi, 30, and Sadala Satyavathi, 29, both from Rampachowdavaram, AP State; P. Sunitha, 23, from Alluri Seetharamaraju District, AP State; and Pantada Aparna, 30, and J Ramanamma, 39, both from Vijayanagaram District.

N. Koti Reddy, DCP, said that as many as six hospitals and fertility clinics were allegedly involved, and their veracity is yet to be verified. These include – Hegde Fertility Hospital (Madhapur), Anu Test Tube Centre (Somajiguda), Ferti Care (Banjara Hills), EVA IVF, Amulya IVF Centre, and Sree Fertility Centre (Kondapur).

The DCP said that the ongoing investigation revealed that the prime accused, Laxmi, had earlier worked as an egg donor and surrogate mother. Using her experience and network of contacts with other agents and fertility clinics, she began recruiting financially vulnerable women to act as egg donors or surrogate mothers and referred them to the aforementioned fertility centres. “For each successful procedure, she collected substantial amounts of money. She kept them at her residence, collecting additional maintenance charges from the hospitals,” said Koti Reddy.

Meanwhile, her son Narender, a chemical engineering graduate from JNTU, assisted her in running this illegal business, which served as their sole source of income. The donors and surrogate mothers involved were aware that commercial surrogacy is prohibited by law but participated for financial gain.

Police seized Rs 6,47,000 in cash from Laxmi, along with a laptop, promissory notes, and non-judicial bond papers. A large quantity of syringes, pregnancy medicines, and hormone injections were also seized, along with five smartphones and one keypad mobile phone. Laxmi was previously involved in a case with CID Unit-2, Mumbai. The operation was conducted in the presence of the District Medical & Health Officer (DM&HO) in accordance with legal norms.

A case has been registered against the accused. Efforts are underway to identify and apprehend other persons connected to this

illegal racket.