Unmarried girl discovered chained to a tree tied herself up – then blamed ‘husband’
An American woman discovered chained to a tree in an Indian forest, claiming her husband abandoned her there to die, admits she did it.
Lalita Kayi Kumar was found filthy, unable to talk and severely undernourished last month, in the jungle in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. In the hospital, the 50-year-old informed staff her husband “tied me to a tree in a forest and said I would die there”.
Ms Kumar also said she needed IV, claiming she couldn’t even sip water after being injected with a substance “for extreme psychosis which causes severe locked jaw”. But after several days in a psychiatric hospital, Ms Kumar told the authorities that she had tied herself up.
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She added she was likely to have been hallucinating when she gave investigators the note saying her husband left her to die, according to the BBC.
(Image: Sawantwadi Rescue Team)
Furthermore she admitted she had locked herself to the tree because she was unhappy about her Visa expiring and her dwindling funds.
Covered in grime, Ms Kumar’s self-imposed plight came to light when her desperate pleas were heard by a local shepherd who alerted the authorities. The distressing images from the scene showed her dire condition. covered in grime.
(Image: Sindhudurg District Hospital)
A note in her possession hinted at troubles with her “former husband”.
It stated: “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.”
Almost two weeks after her rescue, Dr. Sanghamitra Phule, the head of the psychiatric hospital treating Kumar, stated that her condition “is getting better.”
(Image: Sindhudurg District Hospital)
He said: “She eats, walks and also exercises. She is under treatment and we are also giving her some nutrients that her body was lacking.”
Police found her with a copy of her US passport, which indicated she was from Massachusetts, and documents that linked her to an address in Tamil Nadu.
Kumar also had a mobile phone, a tablet, and 31,000 rupees, or £291.
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