Raipur, June 17 (IANS) A baby that went missing a week after birth from Chhattisgarh’s biggest government hospital here has been found. A nurse had given the baby to another woman by “mistake”, police said Tuesday. The police had earlier thought the infant had been kidnapped. But it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity when police brought a woman, Chameli Bai, to the Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Hospital with the ‘missing’ baby in her arms late Monday.

Munni Bai had delivered a baby boy May 24 in the hospital and left him in the nursery ward when she went to her village on the outskirts of Raipur. The baby was reported missing from the ward May 31.

“Chameli, who gave birth to a boy May 30, was on May 31 mistakenly handed over Munni Bai’s baby by a nurse,” Lal Umed Singh, additional superintendent of police (city), told IANS.

“Due to the nurse’s mistake, Chameli returned home with a wrong boy and left her own child unclaimed at the nursery ward. It was a case of mistaken identity,” he said.

Hospital superintendent Vivek Chaudhary said the baby had now been handed over to Munni Bai.