Punjab rehab scam unmasked as doctor ran 22 centres, faked patients and sold recovery drugs in black market

When the Punjab government moved this week to restrict private ownership of drug de-addiction centres to five per person, it was a bid to clean up a system long clouded by corruption and collusion.

Nowhere is that murkiness more visible than in the case of Chandigarh-based Dr. Amit Bansal — a man who once operated 22 rehab centres across Punjab and now stands accused of turning recovery into a racket.

According to an ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation, Bansal allegedly fabricated patient records, hoarded Buprenorphine+Naloxone (BNX) tablets meant for recovering addicts, and sold them on the open market — feeding the very addiction he was licensed to treat.

A network of deception

At his peak, Bansal ran 22 de-addiction centres across 16 districts in Punjab and one in Chandigarh — the largest operation by a single individual in the state. All have since been shuttered.

His troubles began in 2022 when two employees from one of his Ludhiana centres were arrested for irregularities. The scandal exploded last year when videos surfaced of staff selling prescription pills to addicts and partygoers in the open market.

Unlike government-run rehab centres that distribute tablets for free, private clinics are authorised to sell each BNX pill for ₹40. Investigators allege that Bansal’s network inflated patient numbers to procure more drugs, which were then resold at high margins.

Punjab currently has 529 state-run Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics and 177 private centres, which were meant to share the state’s anti-drug burden — but, as this case shows, some became conduits for abuse.

The pharmaceutical link

ED sources revealed that Rusan Pharma Limited, a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company, supplied BNX tablets to Bansal’s network. Between April and November 2024, the company reportedly dispatched 2.87 crore tablets to Punjab’s de-addiction centres.

Bank records examined by the ED show Rusan Pharma received ₹90 lakh from one of Bansal’s hospitals over three months, and ₹165 crore from his network between 2020 and 2025 — out of a total ₹300 crore it earned from Punjab centres in that period.

Rusan, which runs a massive manufacturing facility in Dehradun, said it supplies only to licensed doctors and institutions and “has no involvement in dispensing-level misuse.” The company added that it is cooperating fully with investigators and has submitted supply and distribution data to the ED.

Legal troubles and missing audits

Dr. Bansal was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in March this year, but his assets, family accounts, and clinic-linked bank accounts have been frozen. A Lookout Circular has been issued to prevent him from leaving the country. His lawyer, H.S. Dhanoa, declined comment, citing the ongoing court case.

While the ED’s financial probe moves forward, a parallel inquiry ordered by the Punjab Health Department in January 2025 has stalled. Officials admitted they cannot retrieve key documents like patient registers and drug distribution logs, as most of the centres have shut down and their licenses suspended.

“It’s nearly impossible to move ahead without patient and tablet records,” a senior health official conceded. “The system allowed these centres to flourish unchecked for years.”

Oversight in name only

Health Department insiders say Bansal’s chain expanded rapidly between 2016 and 2022 — spanning the last SAD-BJP government and the subsequent Congress regime. Most irregularities surfaced only after the AAP came to power.

Under Punjab’s Comprehensive Action Against Drug Abuse (CADA) plan, private doctors are encouraged to open psychiatric and de-addiction facilities. But while licensing is stringent on paper, the follow-up monitoring has been virtually non-existent.

District-level inspection committees, empowered to conduct surprise checks, “rarely exercised that power,” one inquiry member admitted.

“The Food and Drug Administration was supposed to cross-verify supplier data,” the official added. “But we only checked when complaints came in. Otherwise, we assumed everything was fine.”

Another senior bureaucrat was blunter: “This isn’t negligence — it’s wilful blindness.”

The road ahead

As the ED widens its investigation, the Punjab government’s latest move to limit private ownership of de-addiction centres may help curb future abuse — but for many in the system, the damage is already done.

The Bansal case exposes not just one man’s alleged profiteering, but a systemic failure — where the cure became indistinguishable from the crisis itself.