Kurali rehab centre owners booked for wrongful restraint

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Mohali, October 8

The three owners of a private rehabilitation centre at Lakhnaur village near Kurali here have been booked for wrongful restraint, criminal conspiracy and serious violations of rules and regulations.

A team of two doctors, comprising Dr Aditya Avinash Kaushik, who was appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to check rehabilitation and de-addicition centres, and Dr Pooja, along with local police sleuths, raided the Reality Foundation, Lakhnaur, today and found serious discrepancies there.

Dr Aditya said the owners of the Reality Foundation had a licence only to run a rehabilitation centre while they were also found to be indulging in treatment of drug addicts and psychiatric patients. “Against the permitted 15 inmates, we found 153 there. Shockingly, as many as 102 inmates had not given their consent, which is mandatory under the rules,” Dr Aditya said, adding that a licence was needed to treat or house drug-addicts at such a centre.

Dr Aditya said some psychiatric patients were also found at the centre, which was a serious violation of the Mental Health Act. “The inmates were put up in poor conditions,” he added.

Mohali SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said on the complaint of Dr Aditya Avinash Kaushik, a case under Sections 341, 342, 465 and 120B of the IPC had been registered against the trio at the Kurali police station this evening. “As we found serious violations at the centre, the role of government officials concerned would be examined. We would conduct thorough investigations in this regard. Anyone found guilty will not be spared,” said SSP Bhullar.

When asked, Mohali Civil Surgeon Dr Ranjit Guru accepted that it was the duty of the government health officials to check violations at these centres. “We would intensify our searches in this regard,” said Dr Guru.