'Bags only contained medical waste and not foetuses', clarify officials

No human foetus or bodies of newborns were found in plastic bags recovered from vacant land at Haridebpur in southern part of the city, the Kolkata Police said Sunday retracting from statements made by officials earlier in the day.

"The plastic bags actually contained medical waste, it was found later," DC South-West Division Nilanjan Biswas said.

Biswas had earlier told a press conference that 14 human foetuses were found in the bags recovered during cleaning of the patch of land.

Police would visit nearby hospitals and nursing homes to check whether any abortion racket was operating from those facilities, he had stated.

Initial police reports before the press conference had said bodies of 14 newborns were recovered.

However, within an hour, Biswas retracted from his statement and said it was found after examination at a hospital that the bags contained only medical waste such as cotton and bandages, and there was no sign of any human foetus.

The DC also visited the hospital where the bags were sent for examination.

"I spoke to the doctors there. We will conduct forensic tests of the material recovered. Our forensic team is looking into it," he said.

City Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and other senior police officers had rushed to the spot after reports of bodies of newborns being found from the place.

The bags actually contained medical waste, it was found later, a police official said. They were found on the grassy land on Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani under the Haridebpur Police station area when labourers were cleaning the patch, he said.