Goa Police Rescues Woman Confined in Dark Room for Last 20 Years

The woman was naked and was reluctant to move out of the room when the police found her.

The woman, locked in a dark room which has been her world for the last two decades. (Photo: TV Grab)

The Goa police have arrested four members of a family for allegedly keeping a woman 'confined' in a room in her parents' house for the past 20 years in North Goa's Candolim village near Panaji.

The woman, who is in her 50s, was locked in the dark room in the house allegedly by her two brothers and their wives for her abnormal behaviour, 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. A senior police official said:

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 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.

"Four persons in the house – two brothers and their wives – were placed under arrest last night after they were questioned," Superintendent of Police (crime branch) Karthik Kashyap told PTI.

The four accused were later produced in the court of a judicial magistrate first class, who granted them bail, he said.

"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 earlier said.

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 to Goa Medical College and Hospital by the police.