The probe into the alleged illegal surrogacy and child trafficking racket in Hyderabad has revealed the involvement of doctors and middlemen who identified and coaxed needy pregnant women to give up their babies in exchange for money, Enforcement Directorate sources said on Monday.

Last week, the ED arrested Dr Athuluri Namratha alias Pachipalli Namratha under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Namratha used to run Srushti Fertility & Research Centre that allegedly supplied babies not biologically related to couples opting for surrogacy. These babies were sourced from poor women who were lured into giving up their newborns immediately after birth.

“The initial probe suggest that several doctors and middlemen are part of this massive illegal surrogacy and child trafficking racket in Hyderabad,” an ED official said.

Through her associates, Namratha allegedly bought newborns — boys for ₹4.5 lakh and girls for ₹3.5 lakh — and sold them to childless couples for hefty amounts.

The ED had initiated its probe based on multiple FIRs registered by Gopalapuram police station related to charges of fraud, cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegal surrogacy and child trafficking.

The police had earlier arrested Namratha and others, but she was granted bail on November 27 last year.

The ED said deliveries were conducted at Namratha's hospital in Visakhapatnam as the licence of her Secunderabad hospital had been revoked. "The birth reports forwarded to the municipal authorities were forged by her and reflected the names of the childless couples as parents instead of the biological parents,” the ED said in a statement.

Several couples were cheated in this manner and huge amounts were collected from them. “Part of these amounts were paid to the agents/sub-agents as their commission and also to the biological parents of the trafficked babies,” the ED said.