Thane, Police probing the inter-state female egg smuggling racket, which was operated from Thane district, have arrested a dentist from Nashik who allegedly facilitated illegal surrogate mother contracts at an IVF facility registered in his wife’s name, an official said on Wednesday.
With the latest arrest, the number of individuals in police custody has reached six.
A senior police officer from Ulhasnagar in Thane district said that police teams are currently conducting raids to trace the mastermind.
The racket allegedly involved luring needy women to “donate” their eggs multiple times using forged identity documents.
A Badlapur Police officer stated that Dr Amol Patil, who operates the ‘Malti IVF Center’ in Nashik’s Mumbai Naka area, was arrested late Tuesday night.
“Investigation revealed that while the IVF facility in Nashik is officially permitted in the name of Dr. Patil’s wife, the accused, who is a dentist, was allegedly using the center to facilitate illegal surrogate mother contracts and egg smuggling,” he added.
Dr Patil was produced before a local court on Wednesday and has been remanded to police custody until March 9.
According to the police, the racket’s operations spanned Badlapur, Ulhasnagar, Thane, and Nashik.
“We have seized medicines and injections worth over ₹15 lakh. The gang used fake Aadhaar cards to show a single woman as multiple donors under different names, bypassing legal limits. It is suspected that over 500 women were exploited, with donors being paid a mere ₹25,000 to ₹30,000, while the eggs were sold for lakhs,” the officer added.
DCP Sachin Gore, Ulhasnagar, confirmed that three police teams are currently conducting raids to reach the mastermind.
“Our investigation shows that photos of numerous women, fake affidavits, and sonography reports were found on the mobile phones of the arrested accused. We are now scrutinising several other IVF and sonography centers in Thane and surrounding districts to catch the ‘big fish’ involved in this illegal trade,” he said.
The other five accused previously arrested in the case include Sulakshana Gadekar, Ashwini Chabukswar, Manjusha Wankhede, Sonal Garewal, and Sumit Sonkamble.
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