More than 40 mentally ill patients, some of them in chains and some with festering wounds from tethers, were rescued from an unlicensed rehab centre at Karor in the district in Kerala on Monday, in a raid by the district medical officer.
Patients, including old women and children, were housed in sheds without roofs. Some bore marks of physical torture.
Sources said some of them were beaten, stripped and humiliated in squalid conditions.
“The scene was horrendous,” said the district medical officer, Dr V.V. Venus, who led the raid. The centre did not have doctors, psychologists or qualified nurses on board.
“There wasn’t even a clean toilet. All inmates were confined to tents, some without even proper roofing. Even animals would be kept in better conditions,” she told this newspaper.
The Peramangalam police registered a case and arrested the owner of the rehabilitation centre, Mr Thalikkulam Joshy and his wife Alfonsa. Police suspects that the centre was a fake charity, set up by the duo to make money from donations within the country and abroad.
The rehabilitation centre was identified by the district medical officials during a survey, “Impact Thrissur”, aimed at identifying and rectifying health-related issues in the district.
Once they found that the centre did not have a licence and inmates were ill-treated, they submitted a report to the district chief judicial magistrate.
The magistrate, Mr P.S. Antony, on Monday directed the DMO to rescue the inmates with the help of city police commissioner.