'Neighbours didn't care'

Speaking to MiD DAY, Sonali Behel, 37, said she and her sister had been in depression for a long time but no one listened to their problems

It's easy to be alone, forsaken in a neighbourhood like Noida. And the results can be dire. On Tuesday, two sisters who had locked themselves up in their Sector 29 apartment for seven months were rescued by the police and an NGO. Anuradha Behel, 40,u00a0the elder sister died in the hospital, her condition was critical and sheu00a0wasu00a0keptu00a0in the ICU.

The women were in an acute state of starvation because of self deprivation.


Sorry state: Sonaliu00a0says she and her sister had started feeling
depressed after their pet dog died last year. Their father was killed in
an accident in 1992 and their mother died a year later. PICs/Imtiyaz Khan

"There is some negative power in the house. We don't know since how long we haven't had any food or water," Sonali told MiD DAY. Doctors say both women have been in severe depression for a long time now. The neighbours called the cops with the help of an NGO when they realised that the sisters had not opened the door of their house number 326 for a month.

All bones
"Both of them are suffering from severe dehydration and depression. When they were brought to the hospital they looked like skeletons. The elder sister Anuradha was bleeding from her mouth and she has been admitted to the ICU. We have kept both of them under observation for 24 hours. We can't talk about their chances of recovery right now," said Dr. VB Joshi at Kailash Hospital.

When MiD DAY went to room number 163 on the first floor of the hospital and asked Sonali about what had happened with her, she said that someone had unleashed an evil force on their house. "Some tantrik has influenced our house with black magic. We experienced some spirit continuously hitting on our heads. We haven't eaten for at least two months. We have told these things to the neighbours but nobody understood," said Sonali.


(Inset) Retd Major BN Sharma, a neighbour of the victims.u00a0The house
where the sisters lived.

When MiD DAY questioned her about her relationship with her brother she said: "My brother is a lovely human being and a self-made man. He just shifted out of here because after his marriage the house was too small to accommodate everyone." However, she remained silent on the questions on their relations with her sister in law.

She also told MiD DAY that she had been feeling depressed since the time Choti (their mixed breed dog) died in June 2009. The residents of the area said that the sisters shifted in to house number 326 in 1996, after the death of their parents.

"Their father was a colonel in the Indian Army and he died in a car accident in 1992. After a year their mother too passed away. In the accident, Anuradha got her face disfigured and it had to be reconstructed by doctors. The two women and their younger brother were living here happily for a long time. They hail from Agra," said Retd. Major BN Sharma, resident of house number 332.

Turn for the worse
Sharma told MiD DAY about the beginning of the problems. "I have been observing the duo for at least 14 years. The trouble began after the marriage of their brother. The elder sister Anuradha is a CA and was self-employed and the younger one was working as an HR executive in a Garment Export company. They took care of their brother and both of them loved him very much. But after his wedding the brother left the house and both the women broke down completely. The newly-wedded couple couldn't adjust with them.

After their brother left, the duo started behaving strangely. Every day they slipped more and more into depression. They quit their jobs two years ago. They could only be seen in the evening while they walked their dog in the park. No one had seen them since their dog died last year," he said.

"For a few months the duo ordered food to their house, but since the last month or so they haven't opened their doors to anyone. Sometimes my wife and other women from the area visited them but they would only peep out of the door and said they are alright. On occasions we knocked on their doors several times, but they didn't respond. While returning from the morning walk we could only hear them shouting out, but for the past few days the house was completely silent. Then we decided to call the cops," Sharma added.

Other residents of the area told MiD DAY that they had tried to help Anuradha and Sonali many times but they didn't respond. "We even made a PCR call to rescue them a month ago but they didn't open the door and told the cops that they were fine," confirmed HC Sharma, president RWA (resident welfare association) sector 29.

'No dispute'
Speaking to MiD DAY, Vipin Behel, the brother of the two women, who arrived from Bangalore after hearing media reports, said: "There was no dispute between us. But my wife wasn't able to adjust with them properly. So I planned to shift out and also gave them the house. Things were not working out even after that so I opted to sever all connections with them. For the past one year we were completely out of touch with them."

Livingu00a0with theu00a0dead
In September 2010, a 50-year-old mentally-challenged woman stayed in her south Delhi house with the body of her octogenarian mother for a month, not realising that she was dead. The decomposed body of Vinod Gupta, 80, was discovered from her residence in Saket D-Block after a Delhi Jal Board employee, who came there to check the water meter, became suspicious and informed the police.

A police team came to the spot and knocked the door but there was no response. After sometime, the police broke open the door only to sense a foul smell emanating from the room and find a woman, later identified as Shalini, the deceased's daughter, sitting there.

"There were parts of bones and flesh. The body was badly decomposed. We collected the body parts and took them to AIIMS for post mortem. The deceased was also found to be wearing socks. It appears that she died a few months ago; the officer said it was surprising that none of the neighbours could find out about the death earlier. Shalini is a divorcee and has been suffering from mental illness," said a police officer.