Mumbai | The body of a 32-year-old woman, who underwent an abortion after a pre-natal gender test in Karnataka, was recovered from a car in Maharashtra's Sangli district, police said on Tuesday.

The police have detained three family members of the deceased woman who were found with the body in a car in Sangli city on Monday, an official said.

The trio have been handed over to the Karnataka police, he said.

The woman, a resident of Miraj taluka, has two children, and her husband is in the army, he said.

According to the police, the woman was taken to a hospital in Chikodi town in Belagavi district of neighbouring Karnataka, where her family allegedly made her undergo a pre-natal gender test.

She then underwent an abortion, during which she died, but the hospital refused to issue a death certificate, citing that the woman was a resident of Maharashtra, the official said.

The woman's family took possession of her body and drove to Sangli, he said.

The police received a tip-off about the body in the car and intercepted the vehicle at a bus stop, the official said.

"We took cognisance of the incident but have not registered a case. After a post-mortem, we informed the Karnataka police, as the death occurred in their jurisdiction," he said.