Father chains daughter in room for 36 years for mental illness; freed in Uttar Pradesh:

Agra: A woman who had been locked up in a room and chained by her own father was freed by the police who were notified by an NGO. The woman's father had kept her locked in the room for her alleged mental illness.

The woman has been identified as Sapna Jain (53) a resident of Mohammadabad village of Firozabad's Tundla area. In all these years the woman's family slipped meals from beneath the door which she ate and threw water at her from the window for her to bathe. She was finally freed this week, thanks to help extended by former mayor of Agra and BJP MLA from Hathras, Anjula Mahaur. Mahaur was informed of the case by members of local NGO Sewa Bharti.

Things began to change after her father passed away recently. Following which some women from the NGO visited her house to examine the situation. They found Sapna in a very bad shape.



She was surrounded by filth and herself was covered with it. They help clean her up and gave her new clothes to wear, Times of India reported.

MLA Mahaur in the meantime spoke to Sapna's family and convinced her to move her to a mental health facility in Agra. Here the doctors are examining her and have expressed hope that she should be fine in a few weeks.

Mahaur said that Sapna had been imprisoned in the room when she was only 17 years old which means that she was a minor at that time and has spent the best part of her life chained and locked up in that room.

Her family refused to comment on the matter. However, some of her neighbours said that they had known about Sapna's condition and had repeatedly told the family to show her to a doctor, but her family always told them to stay away from their family matter.