MP: Police free woman in Harda locked up by brother for 2 years
The brother and his wife, who claimed that the woman Sanju Bai, 45, was mentally unstable, were allegedly after her Rs 7,000 pension
A woman who had been locked up by her brother and sister-in-law for over two years was rescued by police in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh. The cops also detained the couple on Saturday who claimed that the woman was mentally unstable.
Police said, the couple Suresh and Rani, had confined the Sanju Bai, 45, to a poorly lit and unhygienic room, in order to get her monthly pension. Sanju Bai receives a pension of Rs 7,000 from the government since the death of her husband, a Railways employee.
The couple, however, say they had locked up Sanju Bai because she was mentally unstable and often attacked them. They, however, could not explain why they had not had her mental illness treated.
“Suresh and Rani have been detained and booked under Section 344 of IPC for wrongful confinement for ten or more days. We sent a team of woman police personnel to the house on Saturday and found that the keys of the room in which Sanju Bai was locked were kept at a neighbour’s house. Once the room was opened we saw she was living in an appalling state inside,” Harda additional SP Kiranlata Karketta told HT on Sunday.
“As she had become weak, we got her admitted to the Harda district hospital. Once her condition normalises, we’ll produce her before court and then house her at a women’s shelter home.”
Just a few hours after being hospitalised, Sanju Bai fled from the district hospital on Saturday night, but was brought back a few hours later. “She is under due care of doctors and is in depression. She also has a low IQ,” district hospital civil surgeon Dr SK Sengar said.
Police said Sanju Bai began to live at her brother’s house only after her husband died a few years ago. “Every month she was only taken out of the room to get the monthly pension,” the ASP said.
Harda police s ay they received information about her confinement through an anonymous letter on Friday, after which they raided the house and freed the woman.