Illegal drug de-addiction centre busted in Panchkula, doctor held

Panchkula: In a surprise raid conducted by Haryana Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, along with a team from the district administration and the Health Department, an illegal drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centre at Madawala village was busted on Wednesday night following which a doctor was arrested in connection with the case.

Several desperate attempts to make money from the government plagued the center which was revealed during the raid. According to the officials, the centre was found running with an expired license and gross irregularities were detected.

Similarly, the doctor was arrested under Sections 22 and 32 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Sections 420, 465 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly continuing illegal activities at the centre. He was operating the Marranwala Psychiatry and Drug Dependence Treatment Hospital, Marranwala in Panchkula.

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While investigating the centre, the team found that it had prescribed patients with drugs that come under the category of narcotic drugs under the NDPS Act.

Apart from this, the investigation to fact-check the authenticity of the centre came to a shocking discovery. The centre was registered under NDPS Act on September 12, 2019, but the license expired on September 11 last year. Hence, it was running illegally without a license.

Continuing the centre illegally, the team revealed that it faked the patient records to collect money from the government and that no patients were admitted at the centre for de-addiction in the past year. During telephonic interaction with patients, most patients denied visiting the centre on May 3, but their entries were found in the OPD files. Therefore, the team discovered that the entries of the patients were 99 per cent fake.

It also came to light that the patients were given fake certificates regarding the successful completion of their treatment. It was found that the centre sold medicines at a high price using fake prescriptions.

In addition to this, medicines were given to the patients directly from the counter during their treatment without any personal consultation with the doctor in charge of the centre. It was also observed that there was no security guard present at the centre, and the staff nurses were under-trained.

Commenting on this, Gupta informed HT, “Some people just for making money are misusing drug de-addiction centres and playing with the future of youth. Strict action should be taken against such people.”

Filing a complaint against the illegal activities at the centre, Panchkula deputy chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Sneh Singh said “The committee suspects that narcotic drug buprenorphine is being misused and or diverted to some other places for misuse by the centre by making fake entries in the patient files and registers,” adding the the centre should be sealed by the administration.

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