Bengaluru: High drama prevailed at the BDA residential complex in Austin Town when Viveknagar police went to check on three mentally unstable women at their house, following complaints from neighbours that the women were behaving weirdly and that one of the women had been chained at the flat.
The police on Wednesday found the one bedroom flat filthy, with no electricity, utensils for cooking, clogged toilet, water overflowing in the bathroom and a thick blanket of dust on the floor. The police later said that no one was chained or locked up inside the flat.
When the police knocked on the doors of the flat, Rosy, the owner of the house, tried hard to prevent them from entering. The police forced themselves in and evicted Rosy and her two daughters, Silvia and Smitha, who were living in pitiable conditions.
The three women were first taken to the Viveknagar police station and were later shifted to premier mental health hospital, Nimhans, for treatment.
One of the women reportedly assaulted a woman police constable when she was trying to get them inside the Pink Hoysala patrol vehicle, in which they were being brought to the police station.
The police said that the Rosy and Silvia went into a severe depression after Rosy’s husband Paul and their eldest daughter died a few years ago, while Smitha had mental issues for a long time.
The family had been living in the flat for the last 20 years and the three women started behaving abnormally for the last two to three years. “They never spoke to anyone and were hardly seen outside their house. They kept screaming at each other especially in the night, making our lives miserable. They collected their urine in a bucket and poured it outside their house” said a neighbour.
He said that many people moved out of the apartment complex because of their weird behaviour. “While the Rosy and Silvia are mentally unstable, Smitha has had mental issues. They had no water supply and electricity. It was as if they never cared about it. Rosy and Silvia went out of the house in search of food, leaving Smitha at the house. They usually got food from nearby churches and ate together at the house,” a senior police officer said.
He clarified that Smitha was not chained or locked in a room as claimed by the neighbours. “As she was unstable, Rosy and Silvia left her in the house and locked the door to ensure that she did not go out,” he said.
