Flyer from Malaysia held at Mumbai airport in embryo-smuggling racket

MUMBAI: A man from Malaysia carrying a human embryo in a specialised nitrogenpacked canister was arrested on Friday, blowing the lid off a racket involving smuggling of frozen embryos into the country by an infertility clinic.

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials, who made the arrest, said the embryo was to be delivered to the Indo Nippon IVF clinic in Mumbai’s Bandra (West). They suspect the embryos were meant to be transplanted into the womb of Indian surrogates, as the process could be much cheaper in India.

Rules on assisted reproduction are nebulous, but import of embryo is banned except for research and, that too, only after obtaining a no-objection from the Indian Council of Medical Research.

The arrested man, Partiban Durai, worked for a commission and, officials said, he has admitted to making 10 such trips to the Bandra clinic in the last 18 months. He would arrive in the morning with the package and leave by an evening flight.

Goral Gandhi, co-founder of Indo Nippon, moved the Bombay HC on Monday after receiving DRI summons. Her lawyer told the court that she is a “renowned embryologist” and denied allegations that the frozen embryos were for her clinic. DRI’s counsel countered, citing text messages on Durai’s cellphone indicating the clinic as the place of delivery.

The bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre posted the matter to April 3 and in an interim relief, restrained agencies from arresting her.