Bags contained medical waste, not foetuses, clarify officials

A group of labourers stumbled upon what looked like bodies of newborns wrapped in 14 separate plastic packets, while cleaning a plot of land in south Kolkata’s Haridebpur on Sunday afternoon and informed the police.

Senior officers of Kolkata Police as well as the city mayor who rushed to the spot also confirmed them to be dead bodies of newborns and sent them to MR Bangur Hospital here for autopsy. The doctors at the hospital, however, said they did not find any human elements inside the packets. “Initially, the packets seemed to contain foetuses and bodies of newborns. But police did not open the packets. However, when the packets were opened at the hospital, the doctors found no human tissues,” Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police Praveen Tripathi said. “The doctors said that the stuff inside might be medical or clinical wastes. Forensic test will be done to confirm the same,” he added. Earlier in the day, a senior city police officer confirmed that the packets possibly contained foetuses.

City mayor Sovan Chatterjee also confirmed the same and said chemical was applied on the body to stop them from emitting rotting smell.

Police had also said they would initiate a suo-motu case in the matter and hinted that certain local hospitals might be involved in illegal activities. ”We are collecting the CCTV footage of the nearby apartments to look for any suspicious activities near the ground,” an officer had said.