As she comes out of a room at a women’s rescue home on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the 25-year-old looks nervous. It’s been 12 days since she left home in Kolkata, and all she wants is to see her family – an ailing father, her mother, a daily wager, and four siblings, all still studying.“I never dreamed of a marriage,” she tells The Indian Express, sobbing as she speaks. “Money lenders came to our doorstep every day because we borrowed Rs 3.5 lakh because my father’s kidneys had failed and he needed a transplant.The 25-year-old was among 43 women rescued by Telangana’s Malkajgiri police on October 30 from an illegal oocyte extraction and commercial sale racket, following simultaneous raids at five locations in Hyderabad and Secunderabad – Prakash Nagar, Begumpet, Erragadda, Saroornagar and Gopalapuram – in connection with what the police claim is an illegal egg harvesting scam.Also Read | She donated her eggs 45 times: How an illegal fertility racket in Maharashtra scarred women’s healthAccording to investigators, vulnerable women from across the country were lured to the city to donate their oocytes illegally. Police said they seized five vials of Humog HP 150 IU injections, a syringe, two needles and synthetic progestin medications used in the procedures.The harvesting was primarily done at women’s hostels and other residential facilities. Eight people have been arrested so far, and investigators suspect the operation goes back as far as two years. Police are looking at potential links to 23 IVF centres in the city.But while the probe continues, for vulnerable women like the 25-year-old, the promise of money was tempting – it offered a way out of the more fundamental battle against poverty and financial distress. She claims she was offered Rs 50,000 for the “job”. “I did not think about my health; only for my family’s well-being at the time. I did not know that selling eggs is illegal.”The alleged racketThe Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, prohibits the sale or transfer of human oocytes. It stipulates that an oocyte donor must be between 23 and 35 years of age and may donate only once in her lifetime, with no more than seven oocytes retrieved. The law also requires the commissioning couple or woman to provide the donor with health insurance for 12 months to cover complications arising from the retrieval procedure.Story continues below this adAccording to investigators, police raids were based on a tip about a possible racket in the city. Preliminary investigation allegedly revealed that the network operated through organisers, recruiters, agents and intermediaries who identified women in different states by offering money in exchange for oocyte donation. The women, according to investigators, were identified through relatives and friends who knew about their personal circumstances of “debt, misery and financial distress”.According to investigators, young women were lured to Hyderabad, accommodated in hostels and villas, and subsequently referred to fertility-related service providers for ovarian stimulation and oocyte retrieval procedures.Investigators say the rescued women came from Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, among other states. Only some of the women, such as the 25-year-old, were told what they were being brought to Hyderabad for, police sources said.Different members of the network were responsible for recruiting women, arranging their travel and accommodation, and referring them to fertility centres, one investigator said.Story continues below this adEight suspects – Amit Sharma, Nikhat Parveen, Reshma Khatoon, Meghavath Srinivas, J Pradeep, SK Praveen, Vijay Bhagwah Rao Salunke and Pankaj Soni – were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on November 1.Amit Sharma is suspected to be the principal organiser. “Nikkat Parveen allegedly helped recruit women, particularly from West Bengal, through agents, and coordinated their transportation to Hyderabad,” the officer said.According to investigators, the handlers also seized identity documents of the women, who were kept in Hyderabad for one extraction cycle. “From one recruitment agent alone, we got 100 forged Aadhaar cards linked to women from different states, all trafficked to Hyderabad for oocyte extraction,” an investigating officer said.The long wait for homeAt the rescue home, the 25-year-old talks about how she arrived in Hyderabad a week before the raids and stayed at a hostel. “During this time, they were making me take tests and giving me injections,” she says.Story continues below this adBeside her, another 25-year-old awaits her return home. Originally from Mumbai, this woman too knew what she was being asked to do but decided to take up the offer because of her bedridden husband and grandmother. Given the circumstances, it “didn’t feel like the end of the world”, she says.“My husband met with an accident two years ago, leaving me to take care of him and my 75-year-old grandmother,” she says. “Here, I was offered Rs 30,000 for a month’s job. They were ready to give us four square meals a day. I decided to take it.”A few metres away, a 30-year-old woman from Kolkata talks about what she was told about the job. “I was told I could earn a living by helping people with no children,” she says, adding it was a ‘friend’ who got her into the job. “I have a 12-year-old daughter. So, I thought, ‘Why not help people who don’t have children, and also make some money’.”A 33-year-old from Uttar Pradesh adds: “My family of four [husband and two children] were considering ending their lives when an agent offered this job. We were offered Rs 30,000 for one month’s job. We thought this was the only thing that could tide us over.”Story continues below this adBut not all women knew what they were getting into. “I was told that this would be a catering job that paid Rs 40,000 per month. But later, after I travelled to Hyderabad from Mumbai, I realised that this was to sell my oocytes. They told me that the process would be painless,” a 26-year-old woman says.These “agents”, according to the women, also took away their documents for “safekeeping”. “We submitted our Aadhaar and our bank passbook to those who offered us lodging. They never returned the documents,” the 25-year-old woman says.The police maintain that the women were not only crucial witnesses but also victims who needed protection. With several members of the racket yet to be apprehended, the police say the women should remain sequestered.“They cannot be sent off without due process. It could be dangerous if someone traced them,” a woman police guard stationed at the rescue home says.Story continues below this adBut all the women want to do is return home. “It has been 12 days since I have been staying here at this rescue home,” says the first 25-year-old. “My Diwali was spent in tears. My family will be expecting me now for Chhath Pooja. We will never return to Hyderabad once we leave this place.”