Skeletons of 14 newborns wrapped in plastic bags from Kolkata’s Haridevpur on Sunday afternoon. The Kolkata police reached the spot located on an open field of an abandoned compound.
According to reports, skeletons had been found from the same place earlier as well. Haridevpur is less than 2 kms from upscale Tollygunge neighbourhood.
The skeletons were found during a cleaning drive conducted by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Workers came across a plastic bag containing the remains of one of the newborns. A thorough search conducted by the police revealed more bodies.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Praveen Tripathi and Deputy Commissioner of South West Division Nilanjan Biswas rushed to the spot after receiveing information of the shocking discovery. Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, too, arrived at the site.
Chatterjee told reporters that the skeletons were soaked in some kind of chemical to prevent foul smell.
“A thorough search of the entire areas, including nearby waterbodies, will be conducted to see if there are more bodies,” said the Mayor.
“The police are keeping a strict vigil on the spot. The entire ground needs to be cleaned to ascertain the exact number of bodies that have been dumped here,” he added.
The Police are still figuring out how the bodies were dumped on the empty ground. They suspect an abortion racket.
Since there are some hospitals nearby, the Police is trying to ascertain whether the bodies are from one of them.
According to reports, the skeletons have been taken to the MR Bangur hospital for autopsy.
“Condition of skeletons can be determined only after postmortem. We’re also checking the CCTV footage in the area. A complete search will be done tomorrow morning,” Nilanjan Biswas, DC (Behala), was quoted as saying by ANI.