A set of bones and a skull were found in a portion of an old mortuary at Beleghata Infectious Diseases (ID) Hospital by a group of workers engaged in demolishing the structure on Friday afternoon, police said.

Workers who found the skull and the bones, resembling those of a human being, notified the hospital authorities, who then informed Beleghata police station.

Snehashis Bagchi, the workers’ supervisor, said that on Friday afternoon, several workers rushed out of the single-storey building that housed the morgue.

“When I asked them why they ran out of the building, they told me they spotted a skull and bones inside,” said Bagchi.

After the hospital authorities were informed, they called the police.

A police team arrived at the site and collected the skull and the bones.

“We will send the bones and the skull that has been recovered from inside the
old morgue to a forensic lab to verify whether they are indeed human bones,”
said a senior Kolkata Police officer.

According to Bagchi, they had started pulling down the old mortuary structures on Tuesday.

A hospital official said that the old single-storey mortuary is being demolished to make way for a modern morgue.

“This old morgue needed repairs for a long time. Work started on its complete renovation and while some workers were pulling down a portion of the structure several bones and a skull resembling a human being tumbled out,” said the official.

A police officer said that they had started an investigation into the case. They have questioned the workers and the hospital employees.