Udupi, Aug 21: Police have arrested three persons for allegedly obstructing duty and ramming a car into a police vehicle while officers were bringing accused Mahesh Shetty Timarodi to the Brahmavar Police Station in connection with a case registered there.

The arrested have been identified as Srujan L., Hitesh Shetty, and Sahan, all residents of Ujire. They were produced before the court, which remanded them to judicial custody. Police said the car used in the incident has also been seized.

According to police, when Timarodi was being escorted from Ujire to Brahmavar, a group of his supporters followed the convoy in their vehicles. Despite repeated warnings not to interfere with police movement, the supporters allegedly continued to obstruct the vehicles. Near Hosmar, under Karkala Rural Police Station limits, they allegedly rammed their car into an official vehicle (bearing registration number KA 20 G 0669) belonging to the Udupi District Additional Superintendent of Police, in an attempt to prevent the police team from taking Timarodi to Brahmavar.

Following the incident, a case was registered at Karkala Rural Police Station. The three accused were later arrested and their car was seized. They have now been placed under judicial custody.

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Thane (PTI): Police have unearthed an egg-donation racket, suspected to be involving crores of rupees, that repeatedly exploited vulnerable women in Maharashtra's Thane district, officials said.

The victims were offered Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per cycle and repeatedly used as egg donors, resulting in physical exploitation. They were taken to IVF centres where the eggs were surgically extracted and sold for lakhs, they said, adding that so far, 20 women are believed to have fallen prey to the racket.

Three women have been arrested in connection with the illegal trade operating out of a residential apartment and a sonography centre at Joveli in Badlapur East, the police officials said on Saturday.

Egg donation is a fertility procedure where a woman provides eggs for another person to conceive, usually via IVF (in vitro fertilisation). The donor undergoes screening and hormone treatment, eggs are retrieved, fertilised, and transferred to the recipient.

The arrested persons have been identified as Sulakshana Gadekar (44), Ashwini Chabukswar (29), and Manjusha Wankhede (46).

Following a tip-off from a victim to Thane Sub-District Hospital's Chief Medical Officer Dr Jyotsna Sawant, a raid was recently conducted at Gadekar’s residence in Nano City building, the police said.

“We recovered photos of injections used in connection with pregnancy, sonography reports, affidavits with false names, fake documents, and evidence of financial transactions on the mobile phones of the accused,” a police official said.

The accused targeted needy women, paying them Rs 25,000 to 30,000 per cycle. The victims were allegedly administered hormonal injections to increase egg production and were repeatedly used as donors, leading to physical exploitation, the official said.

“The process involved injecting the women to stimulate egg production and taking them for sonography. Once the eggs were ready, the victims were sent to IVF centres where the eggs were surgically extracted and sold for lakhs of rupees,” the official added.

Ulhasnagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Gore said that more than 20 women might have fallen victim to this racket so far.

“The racket was previously operating in Vangani before shifting to Badlapur recently. We are investigating the involvement of IVF centres, doctors, and hospitals. High-profile names are likely to surface as the turnover of this illegal trade is estimated to be in crores,” Gore said.

A case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, the police added.