A man along with his parents kept his wife confined in the bathroom for the past three years for failing to bring along the demanded dowry and giving birth to a girl child.
The 25-year-old woman was rescued after Darbhanga Senior Superintendent of Police Kumar Ekle ordered the woman inspector to investigate the complaint filed by the victim's father, Shyam Sundar Singh.
On Sunday, the police found the woman in tattered clothes and overgrown nails from bathroom of their house in Rambagh locality of Darbhanga town in Bihar.
"The woman could barely open her eyes in the sunlight, as she had survived in darkness and dim light, closeted in the small space," The Press Trust of India quoted Police Station House Officer Seema Kumari as saying.
"She immediately asked for her three-year-old daughter and wept inconsolably when the child could not recognise her," the SHO added.
The police said the woman's husband and in-laws started to torture her over dowry soon after their marriage in 2010 and it became worse when she gave birth to a girl child. She was fed on the left-overs.
"The woman revealed that she was thrown into the bathroom and locked there. She was not allowed to see her child, and given left-over food irregularly. It was as if her in-laws were seeking revenge for not bringing ample dowry and giving birth to a girl child," said SHO Kumari.
"She was never allowed to meet her parents. When her relatives visited Darbhanga to meet her, they were dissuaded or shooed away. She was also barred from interacting with any outsider," she added.
The woman's husband and his parents have been arrested and an FIR has been registered against them.
