Delhi: Locked in, 2 women rescued from house

NEW DELHI: A woman and her daughter were rescued from a house in Mahavir Enclave, southwest Delhi, on Wednesday.
The mother-daughter duo had allegedly locked themselves in at their own house and starved themselves. They were admitted to a private hospital near Dwarka later.
The incident came to light when a neighbour told a media channel and the police that the two women had been detained by force in a first-floor room at A-block, Mahavir Enclave Part II. But when a police team led by the area SHO reached the spot, they found the main door open. The women were inside, both malnourished and staying amid filth for days.
Police requested them to accompany them to a hospital, but they refused. The women, Kalavati (42) and Deepa (20), said they had been living there by choice. The police had to get in a counsellor to convince them.

Kalavati’s father-in-law, Mahaveer Mishra, lived in another room and served them food once a day, whenever they asked for it. Mishra told police that his wife died in 2000 and his two sons died in a road accident four years ago. Kalavati and Deepa had locked themselves up after the tragedy, Mishra claimed.
He also said that both women hallucinated about speaking to the spirit of his son in that room, so they never left it. They would also go days without taking food, he said.

Mishra, a retired MTNL linesman earning a monthly pension of Rs 16,000, said he had been getting the two women treated by a local doctor, but couldn’t afford to admit them to a hospital.