Ghaziabad: 40 patients escape rahab centre; owner, manager thrashed

Ghaziabad: As many as 40 patients ran away from a rehabilitation centre here after allegedly thrashing the owner and manager in Tronica city police station area. The incident occurred on November 25 at a centre named ‘New Selenpi Foundation’, situated in the forest of Harmanpur village, however, the officials of the rehab lodged a police complaint in Tronica City police station late on Friday night. Sunil Kumar, owner of the centre said that he was at the centre with manager Priyanka when the patients escaped. At around 8.30 pm, a group of 12-13 patients who had come for treatment at the centre attacked Sunil and Priyanka, reportedly with the intention of killing them. During the scuffle, around 40 of them escaped, said Kumar. Following his complaint, an FIR has been lodged against patients Abbas, Haider, Mehboob, Ankit, Amit, Sameer, Kapil and about 12-13 others in IPC section-147, 148, 323, 307 in police station Tronica City. Police said that the list of patients is being taken from the director of the drug rehab centre. “Teams have been formed to nab the accused persons, they will be arrested soon,” a police officials said. Meanwhile, local residents in the area told local reporters that most rehab centres running in villages do not have adequate facilities to keep patients in such numbers. Reportedly, these centers are being run by bouncers, not counsellors or doctors. Patients are mistreated by the staff, said locals. “Most of the patients in these centers are kept in a single room. In the name of getting rid of their addictions, they are made to sleep on the floor,” local residents said. Local reports allege that patients admitted in such centers are not provided with mandatory counselling by a psychologist, probably because of which, a lot of cases of patients running away from rehab have come to the fore, recently. Past incidents On July 3, 2021, 14 patients fled by breaking the window of a rehab center located in village Asalnagar of Muradnagar police station area. While eight patients returned on their own and six were traced by the police. Those traced by police said, one of the patients had died which scared and prompted them to run away. In October 2019, Sabir Khan, director of a rehab center in Ghaziabad, was beaten to death by patients. It was alleged that he used to misbehave with the patients. The patients in his rehab center were not provided with basics like food. Many patients were arrested in this case and they also went to jail. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.