Police in India rescued a 50-year-old American woman who was found chained to a tree in a forest in Maharashtra state. The woman, Lalita Kayi Kumar, claims her Indian husband left her there to die. Maharashtra Police said that Kumar was discovered in the Sindhudurg district, about 280 miles south of Mumbai, on Saturday after local shepherds heard her cries for help and alerted authorities.
Photos and videos broadcast by Indian news outlets showed an emaciated woman in ragged clothing being assisted by rescuers in the forest, with one of her legs chained to a tree.
After being rescued, Kumar was taken to a hospital in Sindhudurg and later transferred to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Goa Medical College and Hospital. Police stated that doctors had informed them that she suffers from psychiatric problems but is medically “out of danger.”
A video broadcast by a national TV channel showed medics surrounding Kumar on a hospital bed as she wrote a note to communicate her story. In the note, she alleges that her husband left her shackled in the jungle to die. It read: “Injection for extreme psychosis which caused a severely locked jaw and inability to drink any water. Need intravenous food. 40 days without food and water. Husband tied me to a tree in the forest and said I would die there.”
Police recovered a photocopy of Kumar’s U.S. passport, an Indian ID, and other documents from her possession. An attempted murder case has been filed against her husband, identified as Satish, according to Vikas Badave, the police inspector in charge of the investigation. “We registered an attempt to murder case on 30th July,” Badave said, adding that officers “have very little information about her husband right now.”
A police team has been sent to Tamil Nadu state, several hundred miles away in southern India, in search of her husband, as Kumar’s Indian ID references an address there. Police are also trying to locate her relatives.
Badave said on Thursday that officers had been unable to record a formal statement from Kumar as doctors had advised against it so far.
Dr. Anil Rane, the medical superintendent of the psychiatry institute in Goa said that Kumar was transferred back to the hospital in Sindhudurg on Wednesday evening as “her condition had improved,” but he declined to share any further information on her treatment or condition due to privacy laws.
The police said they were in contact with the U.S. embassy in India regarding the case, but the embassy declined to comment when asked by India News.
Indian news outlet NDTV reported that an expired Indian visa was found on Kumar’s American passport, suggesting she had lived in India for 10 years.
“There is some progress in the investigation,” Badave said. “We are looking at all possible angles and trying to verify her every claim.”
