An American woman was found starved and chained to a tree in a forest in India – 2024-08-05 07:10:30

American Lalita Kayi Kumar, 50, was found chained to a tree in the forest a week ago. The woman was found in the middle of a forest in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. The shepherds heard her cries for help and alerted the police, who sawed off the chains and rescued the woman.

The woman was taken to hospital and her physical condition has now improved.

Kayi claimed to the police that her husband chained her and left her in the forest to die without food and water. The police said they were looking for her husband in the southern regions of India. A week has passed since the woman’s rescue, and many questions still remain unanswered. The authorities do not have exact information about how the woman ended up in the forest and who chained her to the tree.

US citizen

The police found a copy of her passport that says she is a US citizen. An Indian identity card was also found on him, according to which he lives in Tamil Nadu. In addition, a mobile phone, a tablet and 31,000 rupiah, i.e. around 340 euros, were found on him. Thus, theft could be ruled out as a motive for the shackling.

The local shepherd who found the woman told the BBC that he was taking his animals to the forest to graze when he heard her screaming loudly.

– When I went there, I saw that one of his legs was tied to a tree. He screamed like an animal.

The locals said that the woman was lucky that the shepherd chose that particular spot. Rescuers found a very underweight woman in a blanket of dirt.

“40 days”

At first, the woman was unable to communicate properly, so she opened the flow of events by writing on paper. He claimed to have been in the forest for a total of 40 days without food and water. In addition, the woman claimed to have received “an injection for extreme psychosis, which caused a badly locked jaw, and thus could not drink water.”

The police doubt the woman’s claims, as it would be unlikely to survive for such a long time without water and food. Now the woman is being evaluated in the hospital. Doctors believe that the woman suffers from psychiatric problems.

– We don’t know how long he was tied to the tree. We believe the man tied her there and fled, the Indian official said.

CBS News reports that police have charged her with attempted murder, but police have very little information about the woman’s husband right now.