Baby business busted: CCB cracks down on illegal surrogacy

Bengaluru: A gang operating an elaborate illegal surrogacy-cum-child trafficking racket has been apprehended by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in the city.

During the operation, the police rescued a 20-day-old baby boy while four suspects were in the midst of attempting to sell the newborn in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

The rescued newborn has been placed in Vani Vilas Hospital for fostering. Subsequent police investigations have unveiled that the gang has already sold at least 10 infants, prompting efforts to dismantle the entire racket. Authorities suspect that the gang may have sold more than 50 babies, including some of their own children.

On a Sunday, the police arrested Kannan Ramasami, Hemalatha, Sharanya, and Murugeshwari while they were in the process of attempting to sell the newborn.

These arrests subsequently led to the apprehension of four more suspects: Suhasini, Radha, Gomathi, and Mahalakshmi. Police are looking into the possible involvement of several hospitals and doctors in the racket. It’s worth noting that, apart from Mahalakshmi, who is from Bengaluru, all other suspects hail from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

According to the police, these suspects previously worked as agents for in vitro fertilization (IVF) centres before the Surrogacy Act imposed stricter rules. They reportedly maintained contact with the receptionists of these hospitals, continuing their fraudulent activities in violation of the Surrogacy Act rules.

They had established a network with several hospitals, leveraging contacts available in hospital records to identify couples facing difficulties conceiving, and then approached them with illicit offers. In some instances, they used contacts from IVF centres to pinpoint potential targets.

These individuals played various roles as agents and obtained babies through different means, subsequently selling them to childless couples.

Additionally, they forged fake documents such as birth certificates with the assistance of doctors, providing them to the couples who had acquired the babies.