Superstition, separation and a 26-hour bike ride: After months of search, mentally ill MP woman found in Nagpur rejoins kin

It soon became clear that she had not spoken to anyone in a long time and remained disconnected from human contact. “She remained absorbed in her own thoughts and hardly communicated with the doctors or the staff,” Katekhaye said.

The search for her home begins

“After the woman got better with treatment and continuous counselling, she slowly began to speak. One day, in a very soft voice, she disclosed her real name, which was very different from the name she told during the admission process,” Katekhaye said. It was only after several days, when she became comfortable with the staff members, that the woman revealed the name of her village, though she could not exactly tell in which district or state it was.

Taking a hint from the way she spoke, the village name and other basic details, efforts were made to trace her family. Preliminary assessment revealed that the village could be near Parasia in Madhya Pradesh. Katekhaye contacted the concerned police station, shared the information and details with the authorities. A few days later, the police informed her that no such person had gone missing in that village.

A renewed hope

In Nagpur, the woman’s condition began to improve. She began to look at the staff members with hope. “I sat with her again and patiently sought more details. She kept repeating the same name of the village. I was now convinced that she belonged to the same place in Madhya Pradesh. I contacted the same police station again. I felt the authorities were a little irritated with me now, but they assured me that they would verify once again,” Katekhaye informed.

After calling the authorities concerned a few more times, Katekhaye finally asked them to share the contact details of the village sarpanch. She spoke to the sarpanch, who informed her that there was a woman by the same name who was still residing there. After a lot of persuasion, the sarpanch agreed to visit the family personally.

Family says they lost her due to superstition

“In about three hours, my phone rang. It was the sarpanch. The patient was from the same village and belonged to the same family. The next day, I spoke to the patient’s brother,” she said.

The woman lived in the village with her parents and six siblings, five of them brothers. Four of her brothers were addicted to alcohol and hardly interfered in family matters. The family survived on daily wage work and some farming-related activities. The brother said she had been suffering from mental illness for nearly five years.

Some acquaintances convinced the family that she was possessed by an evil spirit and took her to a famous temple. The eldest brother opposed this move, but the mother was insistent. Eventually, the family gave in.

The woman stayed at the temple for four long months along with her mother, brother, and his wife, abandoning their livelihood. However, her mental health worsened, until one day she went missing.

The brother’s quest

The woman’s elder brother had been running from pillar to post to locate her. “He even filed a missing complaint at the same police station I called. He searched extensively in Chhindwara, Bhopal and even in different parts of Maharashtra, including Nagpur and Ramtek. He broke down while narrating his ordeal,” Katekhaye recalled.

The man even handed over his farmland to someone else and exhausted all his savings in his search. “Madam, I am coming to get her. I will come on my motorcycle,” he said, while Katekhaye calmly advised him against it, assuring that the woman was in safe hands and that he could take his time to arrange to come by a bus or a car.

But the news that his sister was alive could not keep him in his village for long. After travelling on his bike for 26 hours, the brother reached the regional mental hospital at 12.30 pm on Thursday to take his sister.

“His moist eyes and seeing him in person left me emotional. He took out two Rs 500 notes from his pocket, placed them before me, and asked me to accept it as a token of gratitude. I had to explain to him that I am paid by the government to do this work,” Katekhaye said. She also requested him to arrange a phone conversation with their mother after returning home, so that counselling could be done for her too.

Hospital officials said the effort to help the girl reunite with her family was supported by Medical Superintendent Dr Satish Humane, Deputy Superintendent Dr Mohabey, and senior psychiatrist Dr Pankaj Bagde.

They told the woman’s brother that mental illness is like any physical illness — just as the body falls ill, the mind can also become ill, and that mental illness can be stabilised with proper treatment.

Katekhaye asked them to have faith in God but also seek medical treatment. He promised to take his sister for treatment once every month.