‘Surrogate Mother’ From Odisha Ends Life In Hyderabad; NHRC Seeks Report

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought a detailed report on the alleged suicide death of a woman from Odisha after reportedly falling from a residential flat in Raidurgam area of Hyderabad on November 26.

The NHRC passed the order after taking suo motu cognisance of a media report on the incident.

Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Telangana, have been asked to submit the report, including include the status of the FIR in the matter and the complaints regarding the harassment of women in the name of surrogacy, in two weeks.

According to the reports, the 25-year-old woman, identified as Ashwitha Singh, was purportedly brought to the city by a businessman, Rajesh Babu, for surrogacy under a Rs 10 lakh deal. She was staying in the businessman’s flat on the ninth floor of Hyderabad’s My Home Bhooja society for the past month while her husband stayed nearby at a different accommodation along with their four-year-old son.

In a call to her husband on November 26, the woman reportedly expressed dissatisfaction over Rajesh’s behaviour and said that she would end her life as the man had been behaving inappropriately and had attempted to abuse her.

Police suspect that the woman slipped and died while trying to escape from the residence through the balcony on the intervening night of November 25 and 26. A saris was found tied to an iron grill on the balcony of the woman’s room, extending to the seventh floor.

A case was registered against Rajesh Babu for abetment of suicide under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and probing all angles, including the allegations of misconduct.

Singh was not pregnant at the time of her death as the surrogacy procedure was scheduled to begin next month, reports added.