Two sisters Mamta Gupta, 40, and Neerja, Gupta 29, who had locked themselves inside their house for past 6 years were rescued in New Delhi yesterday by Centralized Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) and taken to Ambedkar hospital.
“The women’s movements and their interaction with neighbours started reducing since their father’s death. But, they completely locked themselves up inside the house around six-seven years ago,” Roopwati, a neighbour, told IANS. Their father and bread winner, Rajender Gupta, died 10 years ago.
Roopwati said in a snatching incident, some people took away Mamta’s gold chain six-seven years ago.
“The incident created panic in her mind and she locked herself inside the house. Her younger sister also followed her,” she said.
Rohini Sector 8 Resident Welfare Association president P.P. Kaushik told IANS that he had never seen the women in the last five years.
“Their mother, Nirmala, would come out of the house sometimes to request me to submit her water and electricity bills. Whenever I asked her about her daughters, she said that they did not want to come outside,” added Kaushik.
He said that as their financial condition was bad. “Their relatives helped them with some money but that was insufficient,” said Kaushik.
“They were never seen outside for last six-seven years. We used to hear them screaming inside their house and could gather little from Mamta’s 13-year-old son Shubham who came to play with children,” said another neighbour Archana.
It appeared they had not been fed for months together. Mamta had bone deformity and was confined to her bed, said a doctor.
Clad in tattered salwar-kameez, both the women were shaggy-haired and had long nails when brought to hospital. The sisters suffered from “flexion deformity” caused due to restricted physical movement, the doctor said.