American woman found chained to tree in Maharashtra forest; attempted murder case lodged against ex-husband

The police have registered a case of attempted murder against the former husband of a 50-year-old American woman who was found tied to a tree with an iron chain in a forest in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, a senior official said on July 30.

The case was registered based on the note written by the woman at a hospital, he 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 in the coastal Sindhudurg district, around 450 km from Mumbai, and left the place, he said.

The woman was found by a shepherd on July 27 evening after he heard her cries. He alerted the police after spotting her chained and in distress. 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 said.

Some media reports claimed that Kayi had remained tied to the tree for nearly 40 days without food. However, Education Post could not independently verify this information.

The woman was shifted to a hospital in neighboring 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, endangering 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.

“She is not in a position to give a statement. She is weak as she has not eaten for a couple of days. Besides, the area where she was found had experienced heavy rain. We don't know for how long she was tied to that tree,” Agrawal 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.

(PTI inputs)