Panic gripped New Gurnam Nagar of Salem Tabri after locals noticed an unborn foetus in the mouth of a stray dog on Saturday evening. On being informed, the Salem Tabri police reached the spot and initiated investigation.
The police took the foetus to the mortuary for postmortem. Assistant sub-inspector Satbir Singh, who is investigating the case, said it was a male foetus that had been mutilated by the dogs.
The ASI added that the locals had noticed the dog with a foetus in a vacant plot. A shopkeeper, Lalit Kumar, shooed the dog away. The cop said that it was possible that some unmarried woman had aborted her pregnancy and disposed of the foetus.
The police said they will check with hospitals, nursing homes and midwives to get the record of pregnant women who had gone through a delivery in the past two or three days.
The police have registered an FIR under Sections 315 (Act done with intent to prevent child being born alive or to cause it to die after birth), 318 (Concealment of birth by secret disposal of dead body) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unidentified persons.