Mumbai: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches at multiple locations across Mumbai Metropolitan Region after registering a money-laundering case in an alleged racket involving illegal stimulation, extraction and sale of human eggs through unauthorised IVF and assisted reproductive technology (ART) centres. Those running illegal IVF/ART centres involved in the racket were also covered in the search.
The network allegedly recruited financially vulnerable women through donor-supply agencies and offered them Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 for eggs.
ED’s money-laundering case is based on an FIR lodged by Badlapur East police in Feb after a complaint by the chief medical officer of Badlapur Sub-District Hospital about an illegal IVF/ART centre operating from a residential flat.
Police had filed a chargesheet in the case in May before a Kalyan court under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Police had investigated 17 accused, including medical practitioners, donor agents, their associates, and persons allegedly involved in forging donor identity and medical documents. It was found that many financially vulnerable women were exploited.
In one case, a donor underwent egg extraction 33 times — even though the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, permits egg donation only once in a woman’s lifetime and not for financial gain.
Individuals associated with sonography centres, IVF/ART centres, suppliers of hormonal injections, and those involved in preparing forged documents, who were earlier investigated by police, are under the ED scanner.
ED is investigating the money generated from the illegal activities and examining the details of properties procured by the accused from proceeds of crime, believed to be around Rs 1 crore.
