On Friday, investigators from the Enforcement Directorate fanned out across multiple locations in Badlapur, Maharashtra, as part of an inquiry into an alleged network centred on the unauthorised collection and sale of human eggs.
Investigators have identified roughly 40 women who, according to their accounts, were recruited into a coordinated arrangement that offered payments of ₹25,000 to ₹30,000 per person in exchange for egg donation. Questions about whether women in financially precarious positions were taken advantage of, and whether the procedures involved met the standards set out under assisted reproductive technology rules, have been brought into focus by the proceedings.
Thane police brought the operation to light in February 2026. Inquiries that followed are said to have uncovered a web of recruiters, practitioners administering hormone-based injections, and clinics where egg harvesting procedures were purportedly performed.
Among the details documented in the investigation, an allegation that one woman underwent egg retrieval procedures on 33 separate occasions has been recorded. Those conducting the inquiry believe a number of women were brought back repeatedly for the procedures, notwithstanding the rules in place restricting egg donation.
Authorities, as relayed through available reporting, say the network identified women in financial hardship and extended monetary offers in exchange for their involvement. Hormone injections were reportedly given to prompt ovulation, with egg collection then taking place at healthcare facilities as part of the described scheme. A review is underway into whether the procedures followed the required medical oversight protocols and met the standards set out under relevant rules.
According to investigators, a residential address in Badlapur East served as the hub of the alleged operation, where women were drawn in for recruitment and fertility-related injections were both held and administered on the premises. According to reports, ultrasound-guided procedures were carried out on the women before they were transferred to partner IVF and medical facilities, where egg retrieval then took place.
Investigators are looking into what part agents and medical professionals may have played in arranging or enabling the procedures. Three women, among them Sulakshana Gadekar — whose involvement is said to have been central to the operation — were taken into custody by Thane police in an earlier phase of the investigation. Investigators are tracing the connections among those who recruited the women, those who carried out the injections, and the medical facilities at which the eggs were allegedly removed.
Passed into law in 2021, India's framework governing egg donation and assisted reproductive procedures — formally titled the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act — puts in place a set of protective provisions for those involved in such treatments. Eligibility criteria set out in the legislation govern who qualifies to donate an oocyte, and any individual may do so no more than once across their lifetime. Under the same legislation, any buying or selling of human gametes and embryos for commercial purposes is barred.
Authorities are looking into whether the payments in question, the repeated procedures carried out at medical facilities, and the suspected role of those institutions ran afoul of these legal provisions.
Enforcement searches carried out by the ED mark a new phase in the probe examining claims of unlawful harvesting and trading of human eggs. Investigators are still working through the network under review, along with the people and locations thought to be connected to it, as the agency moves forward with its response. Investigators are expected to release more information about the searches, along with any next steps concerning those under scrutiny. Those claims will now move through the established legal proceedings.
