US woman found chained to a tree in Maharashtra, attempted murder case filed against ex-husband

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

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 here, and left the place, he said.

The woman was found by a shepherd on Saturday 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 earlier said.

The woman was shifted to a hospital in neighbouring 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, act 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.

"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.