Surrogacy and rape puzzle SC

A bizarre case of rape involving a doctor and his nurse and surrogate parenthood has landed before the Supreme Court.

The complicated case involves puzzling tales of sperm donation, surrogacy deals, blackmail, extortion and an unfortunate child. The petition came up before an SC bench in the form of a petition filed by Dr Pradeep Gupta of Ghaziabad, who is facing the allegation of having raped his nurse.

According to his counsel, Mr Anup Banerjee, the nurse was lying. She had actually agreed to be a surrogate mother for Dr Gupta’s childless friend, Mr Dilwar Singh, after taking Rs 1 lakh, he alleged.

Dr Gupta had donated sperm for this “deal” but after delivering the baby, the nurse, instigated by some anti-socials, alleged that he had raped her, alleged Mr Banerjee.

She filed a rape case against Dr Gupta in August 2007 with the Sahibabad, UP, police but the cops gave him a clean chit. The nurse, who said the doctor had concocted the surrogacy tale, contested this in a court and a magistrate ordered a DNA test to clarify things. This landed Dr Gupta in a fix. He moved the Allahabad HC seeking stay on the DNA test but the HC turned it down.

According to Dr Gupta, the DNA test was unnecessary since it would only give the child the stigma of being the product of an aborted surrogacy deal. After hearing the petition, the SC bench stayed the order for a DNA test and issued notices to the nurse.