The foetuses recovered in Kishanganj. Picture by Mohan Mahato

Kishanganj, April 4: The recovery of foetuses, uteruses and tumours, preserved in jars and a bucket, from a heap of garbage in Subhashpali Colony of Kishanganj town has shocked not just the police but also the medical professionals in the district.

The Kishanganj police on Sunday recovered seven foetuses, five female and two male, six uteruses and some tumours kept in jars and bucket filled with preserving chemical — Formaline — from the garbage in front of Anjuman Islamia Madarsa.

On inquiry, the police found that the jars and bucket were thrown out by one Suraiya Khatun, a house owner, who had discovered them while cleaning the house. Earlier, a private clinic — Life Care Nursing Home— was being run by Dr B.K. Rai, a famous gynecologist, on the same premises.

“It appears to be a matter of illegal abortions and sex determination being practiced in the nursing home but the cause of preservation of foetuses is not clear so far,” superintendent of police Ranjit Kumar Mishra said.

The nursing home was closed six months ago after the death of Dr Rai in a road accident. Dr Rai, his wife and the driver were killed while travelling in their car from Kishanganj to Calcutta. Dr Rai’s only son later moved to Calcutta.

Suraiya said the relatives of Dr Rai came after his death and took away every thing from the house except for the 15 jars and a bucket containing the foetuses, uteruses and tumours. On April 3, Suraiya unlocked her house for cleaning purpose and was shocked to see the jars and the bucket. Not knowing what to do, she threw them in the garbage.

Additional chief medical officer of Kishanganj Sadar Hospital, Dr Rajendra Prasad, told The Telegraph it was a matter of foeticide but the reasons for preserving them was not known so far. Prasad said doctors, under any circumstance, are not supposed to preserve body organs or foetuses in their homes. Even for academic purposes, such things are preserves in hospitals and colleges.

Meanwhile, he said that the age of gestation period of each foetus varied from five to eight months. The way the foetuses were preserved it seemed that they had been kept for specimen purpose because one of the samples was of year 2001, he added.

Dr R.P. Singh, the deputy superintendent of Kishan-ganj Sadar Hospital, said since the hospital lacks forensic experts, so the postmortem of the foetuses cannot be conducted here. A team, comprising Dr Manjar Alam, Dr Rafat Hussain, Dr Devendra Kumar and Dr Singh, would take these foetuses, uteruses and tumours to Bhagalpur Medical College for postmortem and further investigation.