Just two days before President Pranab Mukherjee is to attend his first function in the city on Saturday, the Chennai police on Wednesday night conducted a security drill, where armed decoys were sent around the city in seven cars and police personnel at vehicle check points were tasked to detect them.
“Out of the seven cars, five were detected,” a police source said here.
President Mukherjee, is scheduled to participate in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Madras high court on Saturday, along with senior Supreme Court judges, chief minister Jayalalithaa and many other dignitaries.
A senior city police official said that the security drill was purely an internal exercise of the Chennai police. It was not codenamed like other large-scale drills in which various security agencies take part.
“In the city we undertake such drills occasionally. On Wednesday night, we tried a different method to test the efficiency of our teams deployed at the various vehicle checkpoints and sensitive areas.
A car with decoys was intercepted when it was found trying to enter a complex on Haddows Road,” a senior police official said.
Senor police officials, however, said that the security drill had nothing to do with the visit of the President to the city and termed it a routine exercise.