On February 23, her 79-year-old mother went to her balcony and cried for help, shouting at passersby that she was being confined and starved.The 30-year-old woman has been awaiting news of her mother. Three policemen wait outside her house, while she peers through a grill, asking: “Where is my mother?” A woman constable replies: “Child, she is in a shelter home. She will be taken care of. Let us in.”
But the woman snaps: “You came here for my blood. There will be no poking and prodding, I am done with medical tests. You are fake policemen. Leave my house.”
For five days, a three-member police team has been looking after the woman, who is accused of confining and starving her 79-year-old mother for over six months.
Local police in southeast Delhi, where the woman lives, say she has been fighting mental issues and depression for a while now. While she has been charged under IPC sections 323 (causing hurt), 344 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation), police have decided to look after her rather than putting her behind bars.
On February 23, her 79-year-old mother went to her balcony and cried for help, shouting at passersby that she was being confined and starved. Phone calls were made and police, along with a Delhi Commission for Women volunteer, rescued the elderly woman.
They found the mother and daughter living in a pitiable condition, lying on mattresses on the floor and wearing the same clothes for months.
“My daughter confined me for six months inside my house. She does not feed me and I am scared of her angry outbursts. She tries to choke me when she gets angry,” the elderly woman’s statement to the police read.
For the time being, beat constables have been trying to get through to the 30-year-old daughter, regularly serving her tea, biscuits and water.
“We realised no one had spoken to the woman for five years. She worked at a call centre and looked after her mother before she fell into depression, left her job and stopped stepping outside her house,” said ASI Mukesh.
The ASI was among the police officers at the woman’s home.
“My mother did her zoology from Delhi University. She worked in hospitals after that but got depressed. I used to work in a call centre but I left that job. I could not take care of my mother, but I never hit her,” she told policemen.
The two women stay inside a four-storey building.
“Her father died when she was six years old. I spoke to her for hours before she opened up to us. She isn’t married and spent her time alone. Now we are here for her. Every girl needs a father; at least I am here for her,” Mukesh said.
