US Woman Chained To Tree in Maharashtra Forest: Attempted Murder Case Filed Against Ex-Husband

Police in Sindhudurg district have registered a case of attempted murder against the former husband of a 50-year-old American Woman. She was discovered tied to a tree with an iron chain in a forest after a shepherd heard her cries. The woman, who has been in India for a decade on an expired visa detailed in a note that her ex-husband left her bound in the forest.

Mumbai:A case of attempted murder has been filed against the husband of the 50-year-old American woman who was found chained to a tree in a forest in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, police said on Tuesday.

The woman was rescued after a shepherd heard her cries on Saturday evening in Sonurli village, some 450 kilometres from here. The shepherd alerted police after finding her chained and in distress.

Police registered the case against the woman's husband based on the note written by her at a hospital, a police official said. According to the note, the woman has claimed that her former husband tied her with an iron chain in the forest at Sonurli village and left the place, he said.

When found, the woman was quite weak as she had not eaten anything for a couple of days and also as the area experienced heavy rains. The police found her Aadhaar card with a Tamil Nadu address and a photocopy of her United States of America passport. She has been identified as Lalita Kayi. Her visa has expired, and she has been in India for the past 10 years, the police earlier said.

The woman was shifted to a hospital in neighbouring Goa for treatment, and doctors treating her said she suffers from psychiatric problems. The police have also found medical prescriptions in her possession.

"Based on the note written by the woman at the hospital, a case has been registered against her former husband on charges of attempted murder, act endangering the life or personal safety of others and wrongful confinement under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)," Saurabh Agrawal, Superintendent of Police of Sindhudurg district, said.

The woman's statement is yet to be officially recorded, but after the registration of the case, the police teams have launched a probe, he said. "Police are also trying to verify if the woman's claim that she was chained by her former husband was genuine. We are verifying every claim and information in the note written by her," he added.

The prescriptions that the police have recovered from her suggest that she was undergoing treatment for a psychiatric illness, he said. According to another official, the police also suspect that she was suffering from schizophrenia. Police teams are currently in Tamil Nadu and Goa to trace her husband and other relatives, he said. (With agency inputs)

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