HYDERABAD: Keesara police, on Friday, registered a case against the management of Mamatha Old Age Home for torturing its aged inmates under the guise of treatment. The issue came to light when some inmates escaped and informed local residents, who in turn called the police.
Police rescued 82 inmates from the home which is being run out of two houses at Nagaram village on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The shelter home management reportedly chained inmates and confined them in locked rooms, besides beating them up.
The inmates are from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and were from all age groups. In fact, some of the addicts admitted to the home are in their mid-20s. While the home is run by an NGO, its general secretary Shaik Rathan John Paul maintains it. After he suffered a paralytic attack, his son Bhanu, an engineering graduate, has been managing the home. K Bharathi and two others were assisting him.
DCP Malkajgiri Rakshitha K Murthy told Express that the rescued inmates have been shifted to other homes. “All the inmates have shifted to different facilities for better healthcare and further treatment. We are also probing financial irregularities and other allegations against management of the home,” she said.
Families of five inmates took them back, while 21 women and 56 men were rescued and sent to other homes. Police registered cases against the family members of those who did not turn up to take the remaining inmates back home under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.
Police have sealed the home and started an investigation. Inquiries revealed that the home has been functioning out of two independent houses for more than three years. Mamatha Old Age Home was registered with the government and had permission from the Woman and Child Welfare Department too. But the administration violated prescribed norms.
They admitted persons with mental disabilities, psychiatric problems, alcohol addicts and “treated” them. It was also found that family members of the inmates were paying Rs 10,000 a month to the administration to take care of their kin and treat their disorders.
When police, along with Revenue and Women and Child Welfare Department officials visited the Mamatha Old Age Home late on Thursday, they found inmates chained and locked up inside the rooms. It was also established that the inmates were beaten up and tortured for their behavioural issues.
Administrators of the home were procuring medicines on old prescriptions and giving them expired medicines. Huge stocks of medicines, vitamin supplements were also found in the home during searches on Friday.