50-year-old US citizen found chained in Sindhudurg forest near Goa
The woman claimed that her husband had shackled her to the tree and that she had been living without food and water in the forest for 40 days
MUMBAI: A local from Sindhudurg’s Sawantwadi taluka who had taken his sheep and cows into a forested area on Saturday was met with an alarming sight—a middle-aged woman chained to a tree with an iron shackle. The panicky man immediately informed the Banda police, which rushed to the spot to rescue her.
A police officer said that the woman was a 50-year-old United States citizen called Lalita Kai who claimed to be married to a man from Tamil Nadu and said she was living in India for around a decade. “Her bag was with her and it contained all her personal identification documents like a photocopy of her US passport and her Aadhar card,” said a police official who is part of the investigating team. “It also contained a raincoat and foodstuff.”
The Sindhudurg police have formed five teams to find out how the woman reached the forested area and who shackled her leg to a tree and abandoned her. While in hospital, the woman wrote a note giving information about herself to the police, and claimed that her husband had shackled her to the tree and that she had been living without food and water in the forest for 40 days. ‘Injection for extreme psychosis which caused severe locked jaw and inability to drink any water. Need intravenous food...40 days without food in the forest—husband tied me to a tree in a forest and said I would die there,’ said her note.
A police officer from Banda police station, however, said that this seemed impossible. “A police team has gone to Tamil Nadu to verify the address which is mentioned on her Aadhar card as well as to verify what she told us about her husband,” he said.
“There were no injury marks on her person. However, we could not record her statement, as she was not in a position to speak due to starvation and dehydration,” said police inspector Hemchandra Khopade of the local crime branch.
Sanjay Darade, inspector-general of police for the Konkan range, said that after giving the woman basic medical treatment at the local hospital, taking into account her severely weakened state she was shifted to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB) at Bambolim in Goa.
Dean of the Goa Medical College who is also incharge of the IPHB said, “On the medical side she is stable as of now. She is not in a position to speak or give a statement, she is only communicating through writing. The Maharashtra police are investigating the case.”
The spot where the woman was found is almost four km from the nearest villages, Ronapal and Sonurli, which fall in Sawantwadi taluka of Sindhudurg district. The local people often take their cows and cattle to the forest during the day. The man who spotted the woman heard her faint cries from a distance. As soon as she espied him, she began screaming for help.
The Banda police have registered a diary entry and no case has been filed against anyone till now. Twenty-five to 30 people have been questioned in the last two days and further investigations are on.
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