Woman locked in a dark room for 20 years by her family, rescued

Woman locked in a dark room for 20 years by her family, rescued

A 50-year-old woman was on Tuesday found to be ‘confined’ in a room in her parents’ house for the last twenty years for her ‘abnormal behaviour’ in Candolim village, Goa.

She was rescued by the police after an NGO alerted them. “The woman was locked in a dark room of her parents’ house, currently occupied by her two brothers and their family members. She was being served food and water through a window,” a senior police official said.

A team from the Women’s Police Station raided the house on the information given by the NGO ‘Bailancho Saad’. The official said the NGO came to know about the woman through an email sent by a person who claimed to have seen her.

“When the police team entered the room, they found her naked and she was reluctant to move out of the room,” the official said, adding that she was confined in the dark room for almost 20 years.

Citing her family members, the official said the woman was briefly married to a man from Mumbai, but returned home after finding out that he was already married.

“Her family members locked her in the room when she started behaving ‘abnormally’ after her return from Mumbai,” the official said. The woman was taken for medical treatment by the police.

“We are yet to arrest anyone. The investigation is still at the primary stage. The statements of family members of are being recorded,” he said.