The police said the two women are apparently suffering from depression.
The Delhi Police rescued a mother-daughter duo who had allegedly locked themselves up at their house four years ago in southwest Delhi's Mahavir Enclave area on Wednesday. They are apparently suffering from depression.
After a neighbour made a PCR call informing police that 42-year-old Kalavati and her daughter Deepa, 20, had locked themselves up in a first-floor room of their house, they were rescued and admitted to a hospital, said a senior police officer.
Police are questioning the woman's father-in-law who had been staying with them in the house, he said. The officer added that door of their room was open and the women were malnourished. They were also living under unhygienic conditions, he added.
The women refused to go to the hospital with police.
The two are apparently suffering from a mental illness and hallucinations, he said.
Police said Kalavati's father-in-law, Mahaveer Mishra, lived in the adjacent room and gave them food once a day whenever they asked for it.
Mishra told police that his wife passed away in 2000 and his two sons were killed in a road accident four years ago. He claimed that Kalavati and Deepa had locked themselves up in the room since then.
He used to work as a linesman with MTNL and the family was surviving on Mishra's meagre pension, he claimed. Mishra said the women often claimed they spoke to his sons in the room and survived days without food. He said a local doctor was treating them as he did not have enough savings to admit them to a hospital.