22 October,2026 06:42 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
The women were allegedly recruited in exchange for monetary compensation paid through agents by IVF centres and ART banks. Representational Pic
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it had seized Rs 29 lakh in cash and frozen multiple bank lockers and mutual fund investments following multi-city raids in a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged illegal human egg extraction racket in Maharashtra.
The Maharashtra egg donation racket case pertains to an "organised network" involved in recruiting financially vulnerable women for human egg donation and supplying them to various in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) centres and assisted reproductive technology (ART) banks through donor-supply agents operating under different proprietorships, the news agency reported.
The women were allegedly recruited in exchange for monetary compensation paid through agents by IVF centres and ART banks. The agents also received commissions from such activities, the ED alleged.
According to PTI, the central agency carried out raids at some hospitals and IVF centres in Thane, Baramati and Nashik districts on October 16.
The ED's Maharashtra egg donation racket case, registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from a Thane Police FIR and chargesheet alleging cheating, forgery and violations of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by a woman named Manjusha Wankhede and 16 others.
The agency suspects that forged documents, including Aadhaar cards, affidavits, consent letters, birth certificates, PAN cards, blood-test reports and insurance papers, were used to conceal donors' identities, facilitate repeat egg donations and falsely establish their medical fitness.
"The women were allegedly sent to various establishments in Maharashtra and other states for human egg retrieval, thereby exposing them to potential medical risks and circumventing prescribed medical safeguards," the ED said, PTI reported.
Cash worth Rs 29 lakh was seized during the searches, while bank lockers and mutual fund investments were frozen, the agency said, adding that new donor agents had also been identified.
Taking serious note of revelations about an alleged illegal egg-selling racket linked to Badlapur earlier in March, Thane Mayor Sharmila Pimpalkar has directed the civic administration to conduct thorough inspections of all IVF and sonography centres across the city.
The directive comes after links to similar alleged malpractices surfaced at a prominent hospital in Thane, prompting swift action by the civic body's health department. The hospital's approval for its unauthorised IVF centre was cancelled, and three sonography machines were sealed during a raid on March 6.
(With PTI inputs)
