GURUGRAM: Five months ago, the family of a 40-year-old alcoholic admitted him to a rehabilitation centre in Badshapur . Today, he has contracted multiple infections and become a heavy smoker. It appears that staff at the centre smuggle in bidis, cigarettes and cannabis for the patients The IIT graduate was one of 52 people, aged between 16 and 42 years, who were held illegally at the unauthorised God’s Grace Rehabilitation Centre, being run by a Delhi-based welfare society by the same name. After the centre was raided last Wednesday, horrifying details of inhuman treatment of inmates, horrible living conditions and apathetic attitude of untrained caretakers have emerged in the inquiry report.The centre was being run in Badshapur’s Gandhi Colony since 2010 without being registered with the competent government authority or a licence from department of social welfare. It did not have a psychologist , counsellor, general physician or even provisions for basic first aid. Yet, its owners promised to cure alcoholics and drug addicts in a three-month programme, although many patients were later asked to stay over for months due to the incompetence of staff.None of the staff has any experience in the relevant field, nor are they qualified as medics, including centre in-charge Ashish Chopra, a commerce graduate. They were arrested from the centre on Wednesday. The norms stipulate that a de-addiction centre should have a doctor for every 10 patients, two psychologists-cum-social workers, besides staff nurses, ward attendants, cleaners, etc.The centre charged families of patients up to Rs 30,000 a month for the treatment. “With such a steep fee, the owners raked in crores of rupees in the last 8-9 years. We worry about how many lives and families they wrecked,” said officials.The probe shows patients were kept tied up, tortured and beaten up during their stay at the centre, and were also made to do chores like cleaning toilets at the centre. The rooms, bathrooms and kitchen were found to be dirty and unsanitary.Many patients contacted various infections after staying at the centre, due to the unhygienic conditions. In fact, 11 of the rescued patients had to be hospitalised after being rescued.“For food, they were fed salty water, red chilly and chapatti. According to documents recovered from the centre, an inmate may have even died at the centre earlier this year. Even documentation of inmates was incomplete,” said Amandeep Chauhan, drug control officer, Gurgaon.Patients were made to sit in a “cock position” for hours as punishment if they didn’t complete a chore such as washing laundry. Family members were not allowed to meet them during their stay, only allowed to see them once on CCTV camera.After receiving multiple complaints that people were held forcibly at the centre, the authorities finally, raided it on Wednesday. District officials recovered over a dozen kinds of scheduled drugs — which can only be administered to a patient under a doctor’s supervision — which were being administered to inmates without any kind of medical supervision. All 52 patients were made to sleep in three rooms, although families of many patients were promised independent VIP rooms and charged heftily for it. There were only 30 beds, with the remaining patients made to sleep on the floor.In the absence of a dedicated government-run de-addiction centre in Gurgaon, and with the numbers of drug addicts, alcoholics and recovery of narcotics consignments by cops on the rise, private centres have illegally mushroomed in and around the city over the years. An unofficial estimate puts the number at 12. The city’s only de-addiction centre, servicing the districts of Gurgaon, Mewat and Rewari, is at Civil Hospital. It has 10 beds and was set up in 2010. There are two licensed private centres too, each with a capacity of 10 beds.According to Dr Brahmadeep Sindhu, senior medical officer, Gurgaon, “Most of those affected are poor daily wage slum-dwellers who get trapped into a habit without knowing what they are getting into. Youngsters from rich families are the second big demography. The most abused substances in Gurgaon are alcohol, tobacco, opium, cannabis and psychotropic drugs.”

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