PANAJI: The Panaji women’s police station on Wednesday arrested four family members for unlawfully confining a 45-year-old woman, who was rescued after nearly 15 years on Tuesday from a locked room of her maternal house in Candolim village, North Goa.
Sub-inspector Reema Naik of the women’s police station told The Hindu on Wednesday that a case was registered against the accused under Sections 344 and 346 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
The victim’s two brothers, Mohandas and Ravindra Verlekar, and their wives, Anita and Amita, respectively, were arrested and released on personal bonds.
The victim, Sunita Verlekar, has been shifted to a shelter run by the Institute Of Public Assistance (Provedoria), Ms. Naik said.
During interrogation on Wednesday, the family produced a certificate issued by the State-owned Institute of Psychology and Human Behaviour (IPHB) in 2008, saying that Sunita suffered from undifferentiated schizophrenia-related moderate disabilities.
Medical check-up today
The Director of State, Provedoria, has arranged for a thorough check-up of the victim at the IPHB on Thursday, and the police have been requested to record her statement only after that.
The police said that with the document produced by the family, a senior doctor at the IPHB will now trace her medical records and treat her accordingly.
The woman was rescued with the help of activists from Bailancho Saad, a woman’s collective who were alerted about Sunita’s confinement by village activists.
According to the police, the victim was locked in one room of a house, which belonged to her brothers.
“One of the brothers, who lived in the same house with his family, would give her food through a slit in the door. But we found her without clothes in the room, which had no electricity. There was urine all around the place,” a woman police constable who was involved in the rescue operation had said on Tuesday.