October 27: Aditya Kandoi, an IIT alumnus who was the founder of IVF Centre “Ela Woman” based out of Central Delhi, is now cofounder of RedcliffeLifetech along with another partner Dhiraj Jain. They have a network of labs operating out of Noida. Dhiraj Jain also started a new chain of IVF centres by the name Crysta IVF. However, he resigned as the director, and two new directors have been appointed immediately after the formation of the company. It is widely believed that Aditya Kandoi had invested in both new platforms Redcliffe and Crysta, through a web of companies.

Ela Woman was run by Aditya Kandoiwho is also believed to solicit couples wanting to have a male child through in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Slowly this news reached the Delhi government’s PCNDT unit who investigated this matter further in October 2019. The case was later handed over to Delhi Crime Branch for investigation.

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.

Acting on a complaint received by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare against a racket operated by a company, Elawoman, in Delhi and the entire country, the team conducted a late-night raid and found around 300 computer systems allegedly used to make calls to couples who wanted a child

“This company is alleged to be running through its website, elawoman.com. They offered IVF services and promised to take couples to countries like Thailand, Singapore and Dubai for the process. As per various provisions of the PC-PNDT Act, helping in sex selection and advertising regarding the same is cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable criminal offences,” said Dr Nitin Kumar, special programme officer of PC-PNDT, Delhi government, who was also a part of the investigation team.

Redcliffe and Crysta IVF look to be new frontal organisations of the same group of people with significant involvement of Aditya Kandoi, the alleged mastermind behind Ela Woman, which used to take a registration fee of Rs 10,000 and then sent the patients to Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore under various. 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 in October 2019. It is learnt that Enforcement Directorate might also be probing the foreign currency payments collected by Ela Woman outside India for evasion of taxes.