The story provided by a starving American woman who was found shackled to a tree in India appears to be falling apart, according to a new report.
Lalita Kayi was found chained, starving and emaciated on July 27, deep in the forests of the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, about 25 miles from Goa, screaming for help. She was discovered by a cow herder who said he could hear someone “screaming like an animal.”
Having moved to India a decade ago to study yoga and meditation, Kayi told police in a written statement after her discovery that she survived without food and water after being shackled by her former husband, who “chained her and left her in the forest to die without food or water.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Yet according to the BBC, which spoke with local officials, Kayi is backtracking, with doctors and police now sure she shackled herself. The 50-year-old is currently in a psychiatric facility receiving treatment, the outlet reported, adding that the U.S. Embassy has declined to comment, citing her privacy.
After an initial police investigation, reports surrounding the Kayi’s apparent husband appear to be false. Superintendent of police for Sindhudurg Saurabh Agarwal told the BBC that Kayi now claims she is unmarried, blaming a letter she wrote upon her discovery blaming the fake husband as a hallucination.
In reality, after purchasing the chains herself, she tied herself to the tree out of fear she was running out of money and that her visa had expired.
Kayi’s condition is “improving,” according to Dr. Sanghamitra Phule, superintendent of the psychiatric hospital where Kayi is being held for treatment.
“She eats, walks and also exercises. She is under treatment and we are also giving her some nutrients that her body was lacking,” Phule said, adding her family had been contacted in the U.S. and that Kayi had been in touch through a phone call.
