This story is from July 26, 2020

Two doctors among six held on charges of child trafficking in Vizag

The Vizag city police on Sunday arrested six persons, including two doctors on charges of child trafficking. The gang had sold a newborn boy to a couple in Kolkata.
Two doctors among six held on charges of child trafficking in Vizag
Representational image
VISAKHAPATNAM: The Vizag city police on Sunday arrested six persons, including two doctors on charges of child trafficking. The gang had sold a newborn boy to a couple in Kolkata.
Those arrested have been identified as Dr Patchipala Namrata, managing director of Universal Srusti Hospital in Vizag city; K Venkata Lakshmi (ASHA worker); B Annapurna (ASHA worker); A Ramakrishna; Dr Tirmala, working at Universal Srusti Hospital and L Chandra Mohan.

Vizag police commissioner Rajiv Kumar Meena said that a widow from Vizag rural area had an illicit affair and got pregnant. Knowing about the unwanted pregnancy of the woman through her agent Ramakrishna, doctor Namrata took advantage of the destitute position of the woman.
The doctor lured the woman under the guise of liberating her pregnancy without any charges and she took the woman to her hospital in Vizag city and liberated her pregnancy in March 2020. The woman gave birth to a baby boy. The doctor along with her associates sold the baby boy to a couple in Kolkata.
However, Anganwadi teacher G Sarojini, who knew about the pregnancy of the woman, questioned the woman about the baby. When the woman gave different versions about her pregnancy and child, Sarojini raised doubts and alerted the officials of ICDS and Childline.
While the Childline personnel are probing the matter, the doctor’s associate Chandra Mohan brought the baby from Kolkata and handed over to the Childline on March 20. The baby boy has been under safe custody of Sishu Gruha in Vizag city.

The city police chief said that based on the complaint from the mother of the baby boy, they have registered a case and investigated the case. The investigation has revealed that Dr Namrata has been running a hospital in the name of Srusti Test Tube Baby and further changed the name of the hospital as Universal Srusti Fertility and Research Centre in 2018, after involving in two criminal cases. She has opened branches in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
She used to conduct free medical camps with her teams in rural areas of North Andhra Pradesh and also Odisha to identify the destitute women and unwanted pregnant women through the local agents and Asha workers. On the guise of liberating the unwanted pregnancy with free of cost if they donate their newborn babies. The doctor also used to target egg donors, destitute pregnant women having unwanted pregnant women to procure babies for their trafficking.
After procuring the babies, Dr Namrata used to sell them to rich childless families through her agents. She also generated the particulates of those babies by impersonating the parents and forward to GVMC authorities for obtaining the fake birth certificates. In this case also, the baby boy was named as Siyan Roy, Rajiv Kumar Meena added.
We are investigating the case in multiple angles to establish the number of babies sold by the doctor Namrata. We have arrested Dr Namrata in Karnataka and will arrest the Kolkata based couple who purchased the boy, RK Meena added.
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