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Jupinderjit Singh & Arun Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 16
Acting on a tip-off, a police team headed by Ropar SSP Swapan Sharma raided an unregistered de-addiction centre in Jand Sahib village near Chamkaur Sahib on Tuesday evening and freed all 200 inmates, some with broken limbs.
The addicts, in the 10-30 years’ age group, were subjected to regular beatings by the staff. The owner of the rehab centre, Khushwinder Singh, has been arrested. He was charging Rs 20,000 per month from each of the inmates and would reportedly refuse to release those who failed to pay the dues.
According to the SSP, the inmates, who were kept in a hall, were brutally thrashed to keep them away from drugs. “We are shifting the injured to hospitals. Some have been handed over to their parents. We are in the process of moving some of them to other rehab centres.”
The inmates were reportedly forced to tend to about 100 cattlehead during the day and were huddled into the hall at night. Some of them were picked for severe thrashing every night as a deterrent.
Significantly, a report prepared by the Punjab Health Department last year had said that forced confinement and torture were rampant at private rehab centres.
Prepared after surprise checks in Mohali, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana and Patiala, it had said that addicts were beaten up and that these centres lacked the necessary infrastructure.
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