A drill organised on Wednesday to create awareness among women in the maternity ward of the local government hospital about ‘child-lifters’ turned out to be a nerve-wracking experience for police as well as patients.

Bystanders in the ward were taken aback when they heard a woman wailing that her three-day old child had been stolen.

The woman was not intimated about the drill and as soon as she realised her baby was missing, she started screaming.

DIG of Police and Commissioner Sumith Saran and other police officials rushed to the spot and conducted an inquiry. The mother told them that a woman who was speaking to her had stolen the child.

After examining the CCTV footage, the ‘thief’ was nabbed and the baby handed over to the mother within two hours, sources said. However, people started complaining that police were playing with the life a child by conducting the drill without prior information.

Officials said the drill began at 8:40am,and was kept a secret to check the efficacy of the security system at the Hospital.

Women in the ward were irked over the drill as the parents of the child were on tenterhooks for two hours. Police on their part said they were concerned about the reports of child-lifting in various hospitals, and wanted to create a awareness about how the child-lifters would operate and check the security system. They only wanted to help the public and no malice was intended, officials said.

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