Published Nov 13, 2026 | 8:00 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 13, 2026 | 8:00 PM
Show-cause notices have been issued to the managements of the seven hospitals where violations were detected.
Synopsis: Hyderabad DMHO Dr Putla Srinivas has alleged that an ART bank linked to Sadguru Healthcare Services used nine facilitators across four states to recruit egg donors, with payments of up to ₹65,000 per donor. His complaint also flags 19 missing donor records, disputed clinic allocations and alleged unsupervised hormonal injections. Police are investigating.
An alleged egg procurement network in Hyderabad involved nine facilitators across four states, payments of up to ₹65,000 for every donor and an ART bank that reportedly failed to produce records for 19 of 66 donor cases, according to a complaint filed by Dr Putla Srinivas, District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO), Hyderabad, with Malakpet police.
The complaint alleges that Sadguru Healthcare Services Private Limited operated an assisted reproductive technology (ART) bank and five ART clinics under the names Oasis and Sadguru. It names the company’s director, Dr Gedela Durga Rao, and several facilitators, and asks police to investigate how women were recruited, how intermediaries were paid, and how donors and their oocytes were allocated to fertility clinics.
The complaint follows inspections of working women’s hostels in Begumpet and Saroornagar on 30 and 31 October. Police registered three FIRs after the inspections.
At Ami Nita Girls Hostel in Begumpet, 12 women told officials that a broker, Amith Sharma, had offered them around ₹50,000 for each donation cycle and brought them to Hyderabad. At Shetty Working Women’s Hostel, 15 women alleged that Emirishetty Durga Prasad had offered payments of ₹20,000 to ₹30,000. Two more women were found in Saroornagar.
The initial FIRs recorded concerns about hormonal injections, medical supervision and biomedical waste disposal. They named five fertility centres for verification but did not establish that egg retrievals had been completed or that the centres were involved in illegal activity.
A separate case has now been registered at Malakpet police station on 12 November after Dr Putla Srinivas submitted a complaint detailing the alleged ART bank network and its arrangements with facilitators.
According to Dr Putla Srinivas’s complaint, the ART bank had memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with nine facilitators to supply egg donors. Five were based outside Telangana: three in Maharashtra, one in Madhya Pradesh and one in West Bengal.
The complaint names Amit Sharma and Nikhat Parvin, who were allegedly associated with the Begumpet hostel, among the facilitators. It also identifies Vaishali Ajabarao Gawai, Mehek Shaibaz Shaikh, Lakshmi Durga, Durga Prasad, Parveen Mohammed Shaikh, Kranthi Kumar and Navya Shree.
An MoU with Sharma required him to verify donors’ backgrounds and identity documents and arrange their travel, accommodation and meals during ovarian stimulation and donation. The agreement also provided for him to reimburse the women.
However, the payment due to the facilitator was linked to the number and quality of eggs retrieved.
“Under the MoU with Amit Sharma, the facilitator was to verify each donor’s background and identity documents, arrange and pay for the donors’ travel, accommodation and meals during stimulation and donation, and ‘reimburse’ them. He was entitled to be paid by the bank up to Rs. 65,000 per donor, subject to deduction of tax at source,” Dr Putla Srinivas stated in his complaint.
The amount could be reduced by half if fewer than seven oocytes were retrieved or if the oocytes were considered to be of poor quality. No payment was due if ovarian stimulation was cancelled before the sixth day.
Dr Srinivas has asked police to examine the bank accounts of the company and the facilitators to establish how payments were made to intermediaries and donors.
Dr Srinivas’s complaint identifies Sadguru Healthcare Services Private Limited as the company operating the ART bank and five ART clinics under the names Oasis and Sadguru. Dr Gedela Durga Rao is listed as the director in the registration certificates of the bank and all five clinics.
It also alleges that the ART bank and the company’s Madinaguda clinic operated from the same premises.
“The ART bank and the five ART clinics are all registered in the name of the same company, and the same individual, Dr Gedela Durga Rao, is shown as ‘Director’ in the certificates of registration of the ART bank and of all five ART clinics. The ART bank and the Madinaguda clinic function from the same premises,” reads the FIR at Malakpet police station.
Oasis Fertility’s website identifies Dr Durga G. Rao as its co-founder and medical director. Her profile lists her qualifications as MBBS, DGO and MRCOG (UK), and says she has more than 25 years of experience in reproductive medicine.
The DMHO has also flagged discrepancies in the clinics to which the bank allegedly assigned donors. According to Dr Srinivas’s complaint, donors were sent to clinics in Tolichowki, Gachibowli, Uppal and Malakpet, but the bank produced MoUs or tie-up documents only for branches in Miyapur, Banjara Hills and Secunderabad.
“Donors from the bank were assigned to clinics at Tolichowki, Gachibowli, Uppal and Malakpet, although the bank produced MoUs or tie-ups only with the branches at Miyapur, Banjara Hills and Secunderabad. The registration records listed in Part II show no ART clinic of the company at Gachibowli or Uppal,” Dr Srinivas stated.
The department has asked police to verify the arrangements against state and national ART registries and obtain records showing which clinics received donors and their oocytes.
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The ART bank’s records reportedly showed that 66 donor cases had undergone procedures between January and October 2026. However, the bank furnished records for only 47 cases to the inspecting officials.
The donor list reportedly included some women found at the Begumpet hostel, including Pinky and Shamla, also referred to as Shyamala Shukla.
Dr Srinivas’s complaint also refers to a donor named Pooja Devi whose oocytes were reportedly supplied to the Gachibowli clinic. A 28-year-old woman named Pooja Devi, from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, was among those found at the hostel. The department has asked police to establish whether she was the same person listed in the ART bank’s records by matching her age, husband’s name and address.
The complaint states: “The bank’s records also show that oocytes of a donor named Smt. Pooja Devi were given to the Gachibowli clinic. A woman of that name, Smt. Poojadevi W/o Munnesh Kumar, aged 28 years, of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, was among the women found at the hostel.”
Dr Srinivas has asked police to seize the donor case files for all 66 cases, facilitator agreements, donor-wise facilitator mapping and records showing the supply of oocytes to individual clinics. He has also sought the identification and tracing of all 66 donors, recording of their statements and examination of their medical condition.
The complaint raises a separate concern about hormonal injections allegedly administered to women at the hostel. It says the source of the drugs and whether they were supplied by the ART bank or its clinics must be investigated.
“Hormonal drugs for ovarian stimulation were administered to the women at the hostel without any qualified medical practitioner or supervision. The source of these drugs, and whether they were supplied by or through the ART bank or its clinics, requires investigation,” the complaint states.
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The complaint follows a wider inspection drive by the Telangana Health Department after the alleged recruitment network came to light.
In a statement on 10 November, the department said a task force had inspected 27 of the 44 identified ART facilities across the state. It detected 13 regulatory violations in seven hospitals and issued show-cause notices to their managements.
The department said the women identified in connection with the case, along with the roles of doctors, IVF centres and intermediaries, were being investigated. Inspections at the remaining facilities were continuing, with further action to follow after examining records seized by police and information obtained from the National ART and Surrogacy Registry.
Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha had earlier warned that registrations of centres involved in illegal activities could be permanently cancelled and that the government would take steps to revoke the medical licences of responsible practitioners.
Dr Putla Srinivas’s complaint asks police to investigate the roles of the company, its director and the facilitators, examine financial transactions and trace women recruited from other states. It also seeks coordination with police in Cyberabad and the states from which the women were allegedly brought.
The complaint specifically asks police to identify and trace all 66 donors, record their statements and examine their medical condition. It also seeks an investigation into the roles of the remaining facilitators named in the inspection report dated 11 November.
South First has reached out to Oasis Fertility and will update the copy once a response is received. Nova IVF Fertility, LB Nagar, which was named in an earlier Saroornagar FIR, told South First that it “operates exclusively as an ART clinic and not as an ART bank”. It said donor screening and verification were the responsibility of ART banks under the ART Act.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
