Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has refused to entertain a petition filed by Dr P Namratha, to quash the remand orders in a case filed against her by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Srushti Fertility Center Scam involving selling newborn surrogate babies, delivered to the genetic parents as their own progeny born through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
The case was registered against her in the Special Court for the Enforcement Directorate in Nampally by the ED.
As per a report written by Vujjini Vamshidhar in The Deccan Chronicle, “A bench comprising Justice P Sam Koshy and Justice Nandikonda Narsing Rao ruled that the arrest did not violate the statutory safeguards of Section 19 of the PMLA and declined to intervene in the ongoing investigation.”
Namratha’s counsel argued that the authorised officer of the ED must form “reasons to believe” to arrest and disclose a rational nexus between specific material, the alleged proceeds of crime, and the petitioner’s conscious involvement in money-laundering activity.
Dominic Fernandes, senior standing counsel, appearing for the ED, asserted that the investigation was far from preliminary at the time of the arrest, and that according to the ED, substantial material had been gathered prior to Dr Namratha’s arrest.
He submitted that physical searches and seizures were conducted as part of the investigation prior to her arrest. He added that statements were recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA, and inquiries were made with the statutory bodies prior to her arrest.
“The Court was emphatic that a writ petition challenging an arrest cannot be converted into a surrogate bail hearing or a mini-trial on the correctness of the investigative narrative,” the DC reported on Saturday, April 25.
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