Illegal de-addiction centre sealed in Moga district, 30 inmates rescued

Moga, November 4

At least 30 persons were rescued from an unauthorised drug de-addiction centre being run at Rajeana village in Baghapurana subdivision of Moga district, police officials confirmed here today.

“New Way Drug Counselling and Rehabilitation Centre” was being run without a doctor, a psychologist and nursing staff, which was in gross violation of medical standards.

Confirming it, SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana said there was no one to explain the range of treatment options available to the patients and no treatment protocol was followed.

A criminal case under Sections 420 and 342 of the IPC has been registered at the Baghapurana police station against Sukhwant Singh Brar, Harsimranjit Singh and Nahil Sachdeva, the SSP said while adding that Sachdeva has been arrested by the police. A hunt has been launched to arrest the two other alleged accused, he added.

Khurana said they were running this centre without valid permission from the Health Department and the district administration.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that there was no arrangement to provide emergency services to the inmates, inadequate ambulance facility and no medical nursing care was available to the addicts.

The SHO of Baghapurana police station said that all 30 persons had been rescued from the centre and seven of them were sent to their homes while the rest of them had been admitted to a government hospital for treatment, he said.

The SHO said that the owners of the centre were extorting huge money from the parents of the addicts in the name of treatment and providing food to them by saying that the centre was approved by the state government. Thus, they were committing fraud by misusing the name of the state government.

However, health officials in Moga said one of the owners of the centre, Sukhwant Singh, once got approval from the department to run this centre a few years back. But later the licence was not renewed.