Woman locked herself, son for 3 years due to fear of Covid, rescued

After remaining locked up for three years due to paranoia over the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, a woman and her 10-year-old son were rescued from their residence in Gurgaon's Maruti Kunj on February 21 following a complaint by her husband Suman Majhi.

Munmun Majhi, who is in her thirties, has not even let her husband inside the apartment for the past three years after he left the house to go to the office after the lockdown was lifted in 2020. The only way Suman has been in contact with his family has been through video calls .

The man then approached the Chakkarpur police station seeking help in rescuing his son as his wife did not allow him to meet the child. "At first we thought it was marital discord. However, we later found out that the woman probably had some sort of disorder that caused her to fear that her son would contract COVID-19. “The problems started in February-March 2020 and continued until Tuesday. The husband, an engineer in a private firm, had to rent another accommodation near where the duo lived,” Assistant Sub-Inspector Parveen Kumar Khanna told to a report.

All efforts to talk Munmun out of the situation were futile as she was determined not to let her son out of the house until the vaccine was in place for the children. After contacting the health department, a police team along with health officials, members of the child welfare department and an NGO knocked on Majhi's door. They finally broke down the door and the mother-son duo was taken to a civil hospital for a medical check-up.

"We assured her that nothing will happen to them and that the Covid numbers are now marginal," Khanna said. "I'm happy they're out, I have to take care of their health," Sujan Majhi, who was overwhelmed to hold his son years later, mentioned in a report.