BENGALURU: The South Division police have arrested an advocate who was reportedly acting as a mediator between IVF centres and the gang selling new born babies in connection with the fake surrogacy racket. The case was registered in April, last year and the police have already arrested five accused and have rescued over 11 children. The kingpin of the racket Rathna had succumbed to Covid-19. The role of the advocate was to prepare agreements at IVF centres to those willing to get kids through surrogacy. With the arrest of the advocate, the total number of arrests has gone up to seven and the police have rescued 16 children. All the children have been handed over to their biological parents through the Child Welfare Committee.
The accused advocate KP Banumathi, 41 is a resident of Karnataka Layout in Kurubarahalli. He had filed a bail petition after the arrests of five accused but was denied bail. The other arrested accused are Devi Shanmuga, Ranjana Devi Prasad, Mahesh Kumar, Janardhan and Dhanalakshmi. The accused were selling children to childless couple claiming that they are born of surrogate mothers. The gang was charging Rs 2 to 3 lakhs per child. The gang used to visit hospitals and offered money to poor parents to sell their newborn babies.
“The advocate was convincing the childless couple that everything was legal. The childless couple were unaware of the plot. The police so far have got evidence in one case and suspect her role in many cases,” Harish Pandey, DCP (South) told TNIE. The five accused were granted jail after almost nine months. The police suspect 28 children have been sold, of which 16 have been rescued.