'Mentally-ill' Chhattisgarh woman in shackles swept away in Mahanadi, rescued in Odisha

A mentally retarded woman with her two legs shackled had a miraculous escape on Thursday after she was swept away 50kms through the swollen Mahanadi River from Chhattisgarh to Odisha. 

Local fishermen reportedly rescued the woman, who is a resident of Purath village under Puso district in the neighbouring state, at Lakhanpur area in Jharsuguda district. Subsequently, they handed her over to the police. Her condition is stated to be stable.

“We spotted the woman floating in the water and promptly rescued her with a country boat,” said a fisherman from Palsada.

According to Brajarajanagar SDPO, the woman had got married in the Sariya area five years back. However, she has been suffering from a mental disorder for the last three months. As per the decision of the village committee, her family members had kept her at home by shackling her legs. 

However, the woman left home on Wednesday night without informing anybody. Later, she was swept away by Mahanadi water which was in spate. Luckily, she was alive and rescued by the fishermen in a miraculous manner.

As per the latest report, the relatives of the woman reached Lakhanpur and took the woman with them.

However, the exact reasons why she was kept at home with shackles on both her legs and under which circumstance she was swept away in the swollen river were not immediately known.