Goa woman found 'confined' in room for 20 years, rescued

Panaji : In a shocking incident, a woman, currently in her 50’s, was today found to be ‘confined’ in a room in her parents’ house for the last twenty years for her ‘abnormal behaviour’ in Candolim village near here, the police said.

The woman, locked in a dark room which has been her world for the last two decades, was rescued after an NGO alerted the police. “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 told PTI tonight.

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 to them by a person who claimed to have seen the woman.

“When the police team entered the room, they found that the woman was naked and was reluctant to move out of the room which is located on the backside of her parent’s house,” the official said, adding 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 soon after finding that he was already married. “Her family members locked her in the room after 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 in this case. The investigation is still at primary stage. The statement of family members of the woman is being recorded,” he said.