Noida: Elder of the rescued sisters dies

Agencies

New Delhi, 13 April 2011: Anuradha Bahal, the elder of the two sisters, who were rescued from their self-imposed seclusion in a Noida apartment, died this morning.

 

Following their parents’ death and brother’s decision to live separately after getting married in 2007, the sisters, both in their 40s, had locked themselves up in their apartment for more than six months.

 

As reported earlier,  they were found in a state of shock and  dehydration. One of the women was semi-conscious. The unmarried sisters of Punjabi origin were in extremely poor health.

 

Police shifted the sisters from their Sector 29 residence after neighbours reported the matter to them.

 

The women’s behaviour is attributed to depression following their Armyman father’s death over six months ago.

 

They had lost their mother earlier. Their lone brother now employed in Bangalore had mo­ved out of the apartment. The family is said to be financially well off.

 

According to the neighb­o­u­rs, the sisters had voluntarily remained locked in. Food used to be delivered to them from a canteen but that had stopped after some time. The neighb­ours had chosen not to interfere thinking that the sisters needed some time to overcome their grief but were alarmed when they stopped coming out of their apartment, officials said.

 

When the police accompanied by a social activist broke open the door, they found the apartment in complete disarray. The flat did not have electricity or water supply. “The elder woman could not speak and did not know what was going on," social activist Usha Thakur told reporters here.

 

“It appears that the sisters were extremely attached to th­eir father and went into a shock after he died. The brother had stopped visiting them. Unable to bear the trauma, they may have gone into seclusion,” officials said. Doctors said that the two could be mentally disturbed or suffering from deep depression. “The elder sister is semi-conscious. She has fungal infection in her mouth,” they said.

 

“It could be a case of ext­r­e­me emotional withdrawal ca­used by depression or depression underlined by some sort of psychotic element. In a case like this, both the daughters must have been emotionally dependent on their father and he may have been the one taking all the decisions for them,” said a local psychiatrist.