Six foetuses, three of them female, were found abandoned in four boxes in the coastal area of Dheri village in Umargam taluka, on Wednesday. The incident has sent a wave of shock in the area and the police have started investigations to find out the persons involved in the act.

A Dheri villager found four plastic boxes lying on the roadside near the Tinwala factory, in the evening while on his was back to his house from work. He opened the box and saw the foetuses. He immediately contacted village sarpanch Balwant Rathod, who rushed to the spot with his friends, and later informed the Umargam police station.

Inspector V D Patel reached the spot and took charge of the boxes. The police also called in Dr Murlidhar Roy of the Community health Centre at Umargam to examine the foetuses. Soon several people gathered at the spot after the news spread like wildfire.

A team of Forensic experts from Surat reached the place on Thursday and examined the foetuses. After primary examination, Doctor Roy claimed the foetuses were one to six months old, said the police.

Dr Roy said: “Three of the foetuses were between four to six months old while others were below four months. The foetuses which were between four to six months old, were female, but it was difficult to determine the sex of the remaining ones.”

Umargam Inspector V D Patil said: “We will take the help of a gynaecologist for sex determination and other medical examinations. We will also send it to the pathological laboratory. Since the last couple of days the health department had started a drive to check the hospitals and crack down on the quacks. We suspect that some of the doctors had stored these in their clinics and have now abandoned them.”