Gurgaon: Twenty-seven children and senior citizens who were "forcibly being held", and made to work long hours at an illegal 'drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centre' in sector-55 here were freed after a raid, police said.

A team of Health Department and Gurgaon Police raided the centre at 11 AM after a complaint by Human Rights Commission to the Department that some children and senior citizens were being allegedly held and brutally beaten up by the management of the centre, police said.

"The children and senior citizens who were rescued by our teams have complained they were brutally beaten up and forced to work more than 16 hours. They also alleged that the management gave them each kind of drugs and alcohol including 'Gutka', and Cannabis pills instead of help them in de-addiction," a senior police officer said.

The children and senior citizens are from different states. They were not given any course of medication to help them in de-addiction, he said. "Some of them when deny to work for the management, were beaten up," he added.

"We had received a complaint that some senior citizens and children were beaten up by the Rehabilitation Centre staff. A secret raid was conducted with the help of local police. During the course of investigation, we have found that the centre was being run by without any authentic license.”

"We have handed over this case to police and urged them to take strict action against the staff members and owner of the centre," Pushpa Bishnoi, Chief Medical Officer of Gurgaon said.