The Hyderabad Central Zone Task Force found around 45 women confined at an infertility centre in the city's posh Banjara Hills area during a raid on Saturday evening.
According to reports, the police raided Sai Kiran Infertility Centre located at Road Number 14 of Banjara Hills and found the mothers being confined to the building, for 'diet' and 'observation'.
Several records and other incriminating material were seized from the building.
The New Indian Express reported that some of these women had been confined for nine months in these two floors, being provided with food, medicine, and Rs 10,000 as subsistence allowance.
The police said women were confined in the building and shifted to government hospitals for the delivery, following which they were paid the remaining money.
The TNIE report also quotes Task Force DCP B Limba Reddy saying that the infertility centre hired brokers, and was collecting Rs 15 to Rs 30 lakh from their clients, while only paying Rs 3 lakh to the women.
ANI reported that most women were natives of Delhi, Nagaland, Darjeeling, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Dr K. Padmaja, District Medical Officer (DMO), told ANI, "We have verified all the documents. Some irregularities were found; the hospital management should register for surrogacy but they are running the hospital illegally. The management is not even permitting the surrogate pregnant women to go out; they are illegally forcing them to be in the hospital for nine months."
“No permission was taken by the unit to double up as a surrogate clinic. It is not even registered as a fertility centre. They are only registered under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal diagnostic Techniques Act. But here we have found a full unit functioning without following the prescribed guidelines of the health department,” Padmaja told Deccan Chronicle.