Fake surrogacy racket busted in Hyderabad, 8 arrested including doctor

The Gopalapuram Police in Hyderabad arrested eight individuals, including a doctor and her advocate son, for allegedly running a fake surrogacy racket. The investigation began after a couple, who paid Rs 35 lakh to a fertility clinic, discovered through a DNA test that the baby given to them wasn't biologically theirs.

Hyderabad: Eight persons, who were allegedly running a surrogacy racket and cheating people, were arrested by the Gopalapuram police.

The arrested persons have been identified as Dr Athaluri Namratha (64), P Jayanth Krishna (25), Kalyani Atchayyamma (40), G Chenna (37), N Sadanandam (41), D Santoshi (38), Mohammed Ali Adil (38) and Nasreen Begum.

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Last year, a couple had approached Universal Sruthi Fertility Centre located at Gopalapuram in Secunderabad, for fertility and IVF consultation. Dr Namrata after conducting fertility-related tests, advised the couple to go for surrogacy and directed them to Visakhapatnam for collection of specimens.

The couple was told that the surrogate will be arranged by the clinic and the embryo would be transplanted into the surrogate. “Over nine months, the couple paid Rs. 35 lakh to Dr Namrata and in June 2025, the surrogate delivered a baby. The parents got a DNA test done on the baby and to their shock, found that it did not match that of the couple,” said the DCP (North) S. Rashmi Perumal.

On being confronted, Dr Namrata and her son, who is an advocate, threatened the couple following which they approached the police.

“During the investigation it was found that Dr Namrata took a newborn from Adil and his wife Nasreen, and gave it to the couple who approached her for surrogacy. Dr Namrata paid a certain amount to Adil and Nasreen for giving the baby to her,” said the official.

Dr Namrata, through a network of agents, was luring women who wanted to terminate pregnancies and asked them to continue and contacted them whenever a childless couple approached her for surrogacy. However, instead of undertaking the surrogacy procedures as promised, she was taking babies from poor people and handing it over to them.

The police said that investigation is still ongoing and depending upon the outcome, more arrests could be made. Rashmi Perumal, appealed to the parents who had approached such centers and got victimised to come forward and report the cases.