Malkajgiri Police Rescue 43 Women in Crackdown on Illegal Egg Donation Racket
Malkajgiri police have widened their probe into an illegal oocyte extraction racket operating in Hyderabad after rescuing 43 women who were allegedly exploited for commercial egg donation cycles. The racket targeted economically vulnerable women, paying them between ₹20,000 and ₹30,000 per donation cycle while the operators made an average of about ₹3 lakh from each procedure.
The 43 rescued women, who were discovered during simultaneous raids conducted across Hyderabad, have undergone medical examinations, including fitness and blood-group tests. Investigators are currently cross-referencing their medical histories with records from In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) centres to establish their treatment logs.
The investigation has raised serious concerns regarding how the women were recruited and whether they provided informed consent. Police stated that women from economically weaker sections were targeted, with intermediaries allegedly completing signatures on official documents in some instances. Officers are examining the possible falsification of records and assessing whether the women understood the procedures they were recruited for.
Inquiries revealed that organisers recruited women from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and other states. The victims were transported to Hyderabad and accommodated in the city before intermediaries referred them to facilities for egg retrieval procedures. Investigators are scrutinising their medical files, consent records, and the operations they underwent.
Police are actively tracing the flow of payments and commissions among the organisers, recruiters, and intermediaries who connected the women with fertility clinics. The probe is now expanding directly to medical establishments, with police preparing to serve notices to the District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) and conduct searches at Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and fertility centres.
Some hospitals have approached police to report that employees found to have been involved in the operation have been removed. Malkajgiri police confirmed that all eight accused individuals arrested in connection with the Hyderabad cases have been remanded to judicial custody, with further investigation underway.
