03 November,2009 08:26 AM IST | | Imran Gowhar
Four women lock up nurse at alcohol de-addiction centre and run away, complain to police about treatment
Four women undergoing alcohol de-addiction at the Miracle Foundation Rehabilitation Centre in the city escaped after overpowering a member of the staff on Sunday evening.
But the twist to the story is that the Kothanur police investigating the case are contemplating action against the rehabilitation centre for 'wrongful confinement'.
After the centre filed a missing persons' complaint with the police and sought their help in tracing the four, on Monday two of the escaped alcohol addicts reportedly approached the police and told them the too-strict behaviour of the rehabilitation centre staff had forced them to run away.
The four escaped women were identified as Christine Smith, Carmel Christian, Jennifer S Merlin and Keerthi Srnivasalu.
"We have questioned the management whether they had a licence to run the rehab centre and asked them to produce it," Kothanur police inspector C Balakrishna said.
The police said there are 11 people undergoing de-addiction at the rehabilitation centre. Though the management of the centre claimed to have written permission from the deputy commissioner, the centre is yet to show it to the police.
Making a run for it
On Sunday, the four overpowered the nurse who went to administer them medicine to reduce alcoholic dependency, gagged her, snatched her keys and locked her in the kitchen. The incident came to light when the nurse managed to untie herself and raised an alarm. But by then the four had managed to scale the high walls and jump out.u00a0 Officials at The Miracle Foundation refused to comment on the incident. The centre was in the news earlier after the police raided it for allegedly ill-treating the inmates. Balakrishna said that forcefully keeping anyone under lock and key would amount to wrongful confinement and could attract legal action. "A notice has already been served on to the rehab centre to produce the licence, failing which we will initiate legal action," Balakrishna said.
Legal confusion
A senior police officer said the state government was itself confused on the license issue.u00a0 "The law states that holding any person against his will amounts to wrongful confinement and violation of his fundamental rights," the official said. "So, until alcoholics and drug addicts are considered mental patients, this confusion is going to remain." The police in recent days had initiated a series of raids on rehabilitation centres in and around the city following complaints of ill-treatment.
