Tiruchy: Public pressure is mounting on the district administration to take strong legal action against a de-addiction centre here in the name and style of ‘Life Care Centre Trust’, run by a group of individuals. The centre helps patients addicted to liquor or drugs to turn over a new leaf.
However, on Monday, the Trust came under public ire as human rights activists and local residents staged a protest against the alleged misbehavior of those running the Trust in the wake of the death of a police constable recently.
The protesters filed a complaint with the K K Nagar police here on Monday against the Trust authorities, after Tamilselvan, a police constable from Kandamangalam village in Cuddalore district, died recently after being admitted to the Centre for being cured of his alcoholism.
Poor Tamilselvan became a wreck and could not attend to his police duties due to excessive drinking and hearing about the Trust curing such persons through a social media post, his family members had admitted the constable in this centre on May 28.
But things turned for the worse as constable Tamilselvan died on June 1. His relatives took his body back to their village and even buried the deceased. However, seeing multiple injuries on the deceased person’s body, his relatives suspected foul play. The latter visited the Trust office here and asked its administrators the reasons for the constable’s sudden death. A wordy duel turned ugly and even led to some of the Trust staff attacking the dead constable’s kin, sources said.
The aggrieved kin also noticed 24 ‘patients’ in the Trust premises whose hands and legs were tied with steel chains, in gross violation of human rights.
Preliminary inquiry with inmates revealed one Diwan, one of its administrators, had recently beaten to death Kannan of Edamalaipattipudur amid charges of ‘wrong treatment’ faced by the Trust.
While police took two of the Trust’s administrators into custody for investigation, they are on the lookout for Diwan and the trust owner Manivannan, said to be absconding. One of the Trust inmates explained to the police how Dewan used to attack the inmates who came for treatment with wooden logs. The 24 inmates have preferred complaints with the police. Several mysterious deaths are alleged in the Trust’s past four years.
