Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has refused to entertain a petition filed by Dr P Namratha seeking to quash remand orders passed against her in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Srushti Fertility Centre scam, in which newborn surrogate babies were allegedly sold to genetic parents as children born through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
The ED had registered the case against her before the Special Court for the Enforcement Directorate in Nampally.
A bench of Justice P Sam Koshy and Justice Nandikonda Narsing Rao ruled that her arrest did not violate the statutory safeguards under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and declined to intervene in the ongoing investigation.
Namratha’s counsel argued that the authorised ED officer was required to form “reasons to believe” before making an arrest, and establish a clear rational nexus between specific material, the alleged proceeds of crime, and the petitioner’s conscious involvement in money-laundering activity.
Appearing for the ED, senior standing counsel Dominic Fernandes countered that the investigation was far from preliminary at the time of arrest. He submitted that physical searches and seizures had already been conducted, statements had been recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA, and inquiries had been made with statutory bodies — all prior to Dr Namratha’s arrest, indicating that substantial material had been gathered before she was taken into custody.
The court made clear that a writ petition challenging an arrest could not be converted into a surrogate bail hearing or a mini-trial on the merits of the investigative narrative.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Vivek Bhoomi | | 
