KOLKATA: Fourteen packets, bandaged and wrapped in transparent plastic, found in an empty plot in Haridevpur on the southern fringes of Kolkata on Sunday, prompted a remarkable flip-flop from cops: they first said those could be abandoned fetuses and bodies of newborns, only to change their statement an hour later, saying it was probably medical waste.Two-and-a-half hours later, the cops, quoting experts, finally said the packets contained “dry-fit diapers, with some chemical components”.The U-turn came after experts at MR Bangur Hospital opened the packets in the evening and found “no human tissue”. This served to only deepen the mystery, as it was not only the cops, but the local councillor and even Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee himself, who had said the packets contained bodies of newborns.Around 12.30pm, a dozen-odd labourers engaged by a private construction company to clear the 72-cottah plot on Rammohan Roy Road, near Behala Chowrasta, stumbled upon the packets. They alerted site supervisor Niraj Kumar, who called the Haridevpur cops. Locals said the plot had been procured by the company around four years ago, but it was only in the past six months that they saw some activity there. The plot is walled up on the northern side, which has a gate, and has tin sheets acting as boundary walls on the remaining three sides.The labourers had been engaged on Saturday but it was only on Sunday that they started work on clearing the undergrowth on the eastern side. The packets they found were all of similar size, bandaged and wrapped in plastic and again tied firmly with bandages.Local councillor Soma Chakraborty, the wife of Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Subhasish Chakraborty, was among the first to reach the spot. “Newborn babies were dumped, wrapped in plastic,” she said. “We have informed higher-ups, including the mayor.” Mayor Chatterjee, who reached along with police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, told reporters: “The plastic had newborn babies. The police have been informed. The matter is being investigated.”