Picture used for representational purpose only

NEW DELHI: A raid was conducted on a start-up run by an IIT graduate in central Delhi for allegedly soliciting couples wanting to have a male child through in vitro fertilisation ( IVF ).

Running under the name “Ela Woman”, the clinic had a full-fledged call centre and a website through which people could contact them. They offered to send couples wanting a baby boy to countries like Thailand, Singapore and Dubai where sex selection is not illegal. Sex selection is banned in India under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.

The Delhi government family welfare department said a tip-off came from the Union health ministry after which it was decided to conduct a decoy operation. The raid was a joint operation led by National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC), which has officers from the ministries of health, law and justice, Delhi government’s PCNDT unit, district authorities and police.

Dr Nutan Mundeja, who heads the department of family welfare in Delhi government, said incriminating material like letterheads, fake bills, receipt books of IVF specialists, training module of call centre teams, and module of conversation with online clients, were found during the raid on the call centre on Sunday.

“On Monday, IT specialists and a team of Forensic Sciences Laboratory tried to retrieve data from the laptops and other equipment seized during the raid. An FIR has been filed in the matter,” Dr Mundeja said.

An NIMC officer pretended to be a decoy patient and contacted Ela Woman. The relationship officers of the company explained the procedure as well as the modus operandi of how a baby boy would be born “100%”.

“The relationship officer said that sex determination is banned in India, so they took a registration fee of Rs 10,000 and then sent the patients to Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore under various packages. A deal was struck for Rs 8.5 lakh for getting a baby boy through IVF in Dubai,” a statement by the family welfare department stated.

An official said, “The owner of the start-up still claims that he hasn’t done anything illegal as sex determination wasn’t being conducted in India.”

Meanwhile, National Commission for Women (NCW), which was part of the joint operation, has decided to write to the Union health minister to ensure speedy investigation to identify similar 100-odd clinics allegedly being run by the same group in west Delhi.

NCW chief Rekha Sharma said she plans to carry out surprise inspections across states to check if sex determination and illegal activities are being carried out in the garb of IVF and ultrasound clinics. “The registration of the IVF clinic has been cancelled and evidence is being studied for further action by the cybercrime cell and other authorities. The investigators seized 200-300 laptops from the call centre which was operational since the past two years without any signboards,” said the NCW statement.

