Police in India rescued a woman who was found emaciated and chained to a tree in the Sindhudurg state of Western Maharashtra, on Saturday. Local shepherds had alerted officials after hearing her yells for help.
Pandurang Gawker, a cow herder, was the one who found her in the forest. He told media outlets that he had taken his animals to graze in the area when he heard screams coming from a woman.
Curious, he walked toward the sound and eventually found the woman, whose leg was chained to a tree.
The woman, who has since been identified as 50-year-old Lalita Kayi Kumar, said she was left in the forest to die by her Indian husband.
In photos and videos shared by local news outlets, Kumar can be seen wearing ragged, loose clothing with one of her legs tied to the tree via a chain. She was also covered in dirt and heavily emaciated at the time.
Following her rescue, officials found copies of her American passport next to her, as well as documentation that she had overstayed her visa in India.
The rescue team immediately transferred her to the hospital, where she is currently receiving treatment. For a while, Kumar was not able to speak about the incident as she had not eaten anything for several days and was very weak.
However, she was eventually able to communicate with authorities by writing a note. In it, she wrote that she hadn’t had any food for 40 days and that she has a severely locked jaw due to being injected with an unknown compound causing extreme psychosis and had not been able to drink any water.
Officials have since filed charges for attempted murder, wrongful confinement, and act of endangering life, against her ex-husband Satish. However, Vikas Badave, the police inspector in charge of the case, said they currently have very little information regarding her ex-husband.
Badave said they are currently working with Tamil Nadu state, which is located several hundred miles away, to locate him as Kumar’s local ID included an address for the area.
According to Dr. Anil Rane, who is in charge of the psychiatry institute in Goa, the woman’s condition has improved and she has been taken back to the Sindhudurg hospital. He also said the woman is now able to eat, and is taking medication and interacting with people in English.
However, he did not provide any additional information regarding her condition or treatment.
The police in India said they are now contacting the US embassy in India about the incident.
One news outlet reported that the Indian visa found next to Kumar suggested that she had resided in the area for 10 years. However, they are still looking into the case.
