VIJAYAWADA: A 23-year-old woman from Guntur city has lodged a complaint against her friend and the management of Karthika Datta’s IVF Centre in Suryaraopet here, alleging that she was being forced to become a surrogate mother, following which the cops registered a case against her friend and a few doctors of the institute.
The complainant, Katta Sridevi, is a resident of Vejendla mandal of Guntur district and used to work as an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM). When her mother fell sick, she approached her friend Sandhyarani, who works as a nurse at the IVF centre, for help.
Sandhyarani urged her to become a surrogate to earn `3 lakh and introduced her to Dr K Rama Devi who works at the centre on August 5.
After holding a counselling session, Sridevi was asked to undergo a few tests and given some money as a token of advance.
She was called to the hospital on August 7 and injected with certain drugs as part of the first cycle of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
She fell ill the next day and decided against the idea. “But the hospital management ignored her decision and illegally detained her in the hospital for two days. On Saturday, she approached the police and lodged a complaint,” said inspector K Satyanarayana.
When contacted, the hospital management said Sridevi was kept under medical observation, not confined illegally.
“There is no truth in the allegations levelled against us. She had fever and diarrhea after she was administered the injections, so we kept her under observation,” a member of the centre’s management said.
A case has been registered under IPC Sections 342 and 370 (1).