Tiruchy de-addiction centre flouted norms

As per the Directorate’s instruction, a mental health official (Tiruchy), Dr Niranjana Devi on Tuesday inspected the life care de-addiction centre, located at KK Nagar in Tiruchy, where the inmates came out with charges of undergoing torture. It became a major controversy following the death of a 36-year police personnel who was undergoing treatment there.

After her inspection, Dr Niranjana told the media persons that she had seen the entire centre and reviewed the infrastructure available. “This centre is not fit to continue as a de-addiction centre as it lacks proper infrastructure. None of its employees have studied beyond SSLC and not have they undergone training for treating the patients in the centre,” Dr Niranjana said.

She also said that there were 26 patients in the centre and the relatives took most of them after the news of torture came out. “We have facilitated the transfer of patients to the de-addiction centre functioning at the Tiruchy GH”, she said, adding that a detailed report would be sent to the directorate shortly. Meanwhile, the officials have decided to exhume the body of Tamil Selvan, the police constable who died following torture, for a re-postmortem.