Sanatan Sanstha refuses to divulge details of drugs seizures

Mumbai: Right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha’s Goa unit refused to give details of the use of prescribed drugs, including anti-depressants, recovered last September from its Panvel-based premise by a Maharashtra police team. Citing doctor-patient confidentiality code, Sanatan refused to divulge details to Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). The explanation was cited in the statement given by the outfit’s Goa unit’s Dr Asha Thakkar, who was recently chargesheeted by the state FDA, along with outfit’s Panvel unit, for alleged irregularities related to the drugs’ seizure.

Thakkar is a registered medical practitioner who supervises the work of the outfit’s dispensaries in Goa and Panvel, where preliminary treatment is allegedly provided to those battling psychiatric disorders and ailments. According to Thakkar, there were five outfit followers at its Goa unit who were suffering from mental illness.

“The personal details of a mental patient and the details related to the ailment should be kept confidential according to medical ethics. I don’t think it will be appropriate for me to share the details,” read Dr Thakkar’s statement, in Marathi. The statement read further adds, “If such details are exploited then the responsibility would lie with doctors and me.”

The FDA chargesheet, a copy of which is with The Asian Age, was submitted to a Raigad court under provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. An FDA team had along with police and SIT officers had seized restricted Schedule H drugs from Sanathan’s ashram on September 5. According to FDA, Thakkar via her letter disclosed that she had given orders to a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical firm for various drugs through email for the purchase of medicines.

Maharashtra police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the case of Govind Pansare’s murder, had seized the drugs that were subsequently sent for a chemical analyser’s tests at an Alibaug facility. The group has been under the scanner of the SIT, though it has denied any link or association with the case.

When contacted by The Asian Age, Sanatan Sanstha’s spokesperson Abhay Vartak denied allegations levelled against the group. Mr Vartak said, “FDA’s action is an act of injustice against Sanatan Sanstha. The FDA has filed the chargesheet. The Sanstha will present the facts of the case during the trial; the Sanstha is confident that it will get justice from the court.”