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Police to close ‘baby swap’ probe
The Bhoiwada police, in the course of their investigation, found that the couple, who had alleged the swap due to DNA mismatch among other reasons, had opted for In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) with donor embryos, and hence the DNA did not match with the parents
Mumbai: Police have decided to close the ‘baby swap’ case reported last month from Nawrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital, Parel by filing a C-summary report, which means a complaint is neither true nor false or filed due to a mistake of facts.
The Bhoiwada police, in the course of their investigation, found that the couple, who had alleged the swap due to DNA mismatch among other reasons, had opted for In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) with donor embryos, and hence the DNA did not match with the parents.
The case was registered in November based on the complaint of Sunita Ganjeji, 41, a resident of Kamgar Nagar in Dadar. Sunita and her husband Gangadhar have a 16-year-old daughter. They had been trying for a second child, but as she could not conceive naturally, the couple opted for an IVF treatment at a fertility clinic in Parel.
The baby was born in June this year at Wadia hospital. “When the couple approached us, they had a DNA report showing that the parents’ DNA did not match with the infant’s, and that is why they suspected their child was swapped in the hospital,” a police officer said. Police had applied IPC sections like 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) on doctors and other hospital staff. However, during investigations, when police spoke to the doctor who carried out the IVF, they learnt that it was an embryo adoption IVF, in which the DNA is of a third party. Police said the parents had signed a consent form before the procedure but the parents have claimed that they were not informed that the child’s DNA would not be theirs.
“We were under the assumption that both the egg and the sperm used would be ours,” said the father Gangadhar Ganjeji. “If we were told it was going to be from anonymous donors, we would not have gone ahead with the procedure, that cost us around ₹2 lakh. We were sure the baby would be genetically ours. Why else would we go to such lengths to conduct multiple DNA tests and file a police complaint against Wadia Hospital?” he asked.
Ganjeji said he had no recollection of signing the consent form for the IVF procedure, which was carried out in August 2022. While they were explained the procedure in Hindi, the consent form is in English, a language the parents are not familiar with. A “written informed consent of all the parties seeking assisted reproductive technology” is mandatory for any assisted reproductive treatment procedure as per the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021. In her police complaint, Sunita had also claimed that after giving birth, the baby was never shown to her. “Her husband, Gangadhar, however, was shown the child before it was taken to the ICU,” a police officer said. Over the next months, her suspicion grew that the baby was not hers, and in August she raised a complaint with the hospital authorities. In November, she approached the police.
The baby, meanwhile, is to remain theirs. “We are definitely keeping baby Chinni with us, she is like our own child. If there was another baby out there with our genes, we would keep them both,” said mother Sunita.
The IVF specialist, who conducted the procedure, Dr Ashok Shivdikar, did not want to comment.
