There is mystery in India over the case of a 50-year-old American woman, found chained to a tree in the forest in the district of Sindhudurg, in Maharashtra, in western India. According to the BBC story, Lalita Kayi, this is her name, was found after some shepherds reported hearing her screams. The police freed her in a malnourished condition and transported her to the hospital; after a week of hospitalization she was transferred to a psychiatric facility.
The woman, who is now in better physical condition but suffers from mental problems, accused her husband of “chaining her up and leaving her to die in the forest without food or water.” He is now wanted by police in the southern state of Tamil Nadu based on information she gave them. Many questions remain unanswered.
The shepherd who found her, Pandurang Gawkar, told the BBC that he had been grazing his cattle in the forest when he heard “a woman screaming loudly.”
“The sound came from the forest on the mountainside. When I went there, I saw that one of his legs was tied to a tree. He was screaming like an animal. I called the other villagers and the local police.”
Police said they found a copy of her US passport and Aadhaar card — a unique identification document for Indians — with her home address in Tamil Nadu. She also had a mobile phone, a tablet and 31,000 rupees ($370; £290) on her, ruling out theft as a motive. Police initially took her to a local hospital before transferring her to a hospital in the neighbouring state of Goa.
According to police, Kayi was a dancer and yoga practitioner in America — some reports say specifically in Massachusetts — and moved to India about 10 years ago to study yoga and meditation in Tamil Nadu, where she met her husband, whom police call Satish. After her rescue, she was unable to speak for a while and communicated in writing. She claimed she had not eaten for 40 days, but police say it is unlikely that she survived that long and also cite her possible involvement in the attempted murder of her husband.