Never spoke about surrogacy: SRK

Responding to the sex-determination test allegation levelled by an NGO against him, actor Shah Rukh Khan, in an email, informed the civic body that he had not given any statement on surrogacy. HT reports.

Responding to the sex-determination test allegation levelled by an NGO against him, actor Shah Rukh Khan, in an email, informed the civic body that he had not given any statement on surrogacy.

Varsha Deshpande, from NGO Lek Ladki Abhiyaan, had asked the civic authorities to book Khan, his wife Gauri, Dr Firuza Parikh and the trustees of Jaslok Hospital, where the surrogacy procedure had allegedly taken place.

"The complaint was filed on the basis of news reports which claimed that the couple had commissioned a surrogate mother and the unborn child is a boy. Now that he has denied giving any such statement in the media, we are looking for the doctor who may have leaked out the information," said a senior health official.

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities have served a legal notice to the activist. Acting on the complaint, health officials from the civic body had visited the hospital at Peddar Road to check if the administration or the doctors had any role to play in the incident.

"We have served a legal notice to Deshpande for maligning the image of the hospital and of Dr Firuza Parikh, director of the IVF Centre, by making false statements regarding surrogacy and the sex-determination test allegedly conducted at the behest of Khan," said a hospital spokesperson.

He said that neither the hospital nor Dr Parikh are involved in the case as alleged. The hospital has demanded an unconditional apology from Deshpande.

Deshpande, said, "I have not received any legal notice."

However, the state’s Indian Radiological and Imaging Associations (IRIA) is upset with the state health department. " I do not accept that in the past 5 to 6 days, the BMC could not find the doctor who conducted the sonography and surrogacy on the said patient," said Dr Jignesh Thakker from IRIA.