4 staffers of Nakodar civil hospital among six in police net
JALANDHAR: In the first of its kind incident, the rural police have arrested four employees of Nakodar civil hospital’s opioid substitution theory (OST) centre — a staff nurse, a counsellor, a peon, and a computer operator — and two others for selling rehab drug (buprenorphine) in the market and seized 1,000 tablets from their possession on Friday.
The accused have been identified as staff nurse Asha Rani (27) of Kular village in Jalandhar, counsellor Maninder Singh (28) of Sangna village in Amritsar, computer operator Jagjeet Singh of Sandhu Chatha of Kapurthala, peon Rajinder Kumar Ashu (33) and two drug addicts.
Addressing a press conference, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar accompanied by his team told Sadar Nakodar SHO Onkar Singh got a tip-off about accused were involved in the selling drug after stealing from the records of the OST center and nabbed them after recovering 1,000 tablets.
The SSP claimed Asha was the custodian of these tablets and was supposed to maintain record. He said that by showing maximum entry of tablets given to drug addicts, she was stealing the drug. She, along with Maninder, were giving the drug to the peon, Rajinder, to sell in the market.
He added that computer operator Jagjeet and two drug addicts became a part of this nexus. “Each sachet they sold, had 10 tablets. They were earning huge profit by selling the sachets for ₹650,” the SSP said.
A case under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act, 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 380 (theft in dwelling house) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against them. Bhullar said that the health department has been informed by police about the arrest.
Nakodar civil hospital senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Varinder Jagat said he has informed civil surgeon Dr Maninder Minhas about the police action and higher authorities will take action accordingly.
REHAB DRUG
Buprenorphine or rehab drug is an opioid and is said to be more potent than opium. It is used to treat opioid addiction, moderate acute pain and moderate chronic pain. Buprenorphine treatment carries the risk of causing psychological and or physical dependence. The opioid substitution theory project was started by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to rehabilitate the injectable drug users (IDU) in the state.