Victim Rameshbhai Damar tied with iron chain at his house in Dodanavta village in Khanpur taluka of Gujarat’s Mahisagar district. Victim Rameshbhai Damar tied with iron chain at his house in Dodanavta village in Khanpur taluka of Gujarat’s Mahisagar district.

A thirty-year-old man was rescued by the police and local administration on Tuesday after it came to light that his family members had kept him tied by an iron chain and left him to live in the dingy corner of a hut for nearly 15 years.

The victim, Rameshbhai Damar, was reportedly confined by his family members after a shaman told them that he was possessed by an evil spirit.

Police said that Damar was mentally unstable and was sent to a local hospital for treatment.

Damar was a student of Class XI when he was chained in a corner of his house at Dodanavta village in Khanpur taluka of Gujarat’s Mahisagar district.

His family gave him food and kept him confined because whenever he was set free, he would reportedly pelt stones at them and other villagers.

His family members told police that they were forced to chain him up as he had started behaving oddly after returning from collecting wood from a nearby forest one day.

Their house is located in a remote corner on the top of a hillock and remains hidden from much of the village, police said.

According to the family, which comprises his younger brother and mother, Damar was possessed by an evil spirit when he had gone to collect wood with his brother Somabhai.

Since then, he was kept chained on the advice of a local shaman who visited them at times for treatment, but failed to ‘exorcise’ him.

When he was released on Tuesday, Damar was emaciated and naked, and could not walk properly because he had not been fed properly and was not allowed to move around, police inspector of Mahisagar local crime branch, C C Khatana, who visited the victim’s house, said.

Along with the police, Khanpur mamlatdar and sarpanch had also rushed to the place.

Damar was given a shower and new clothes and was presented before the judge of a local court at Bakor, who allowed him to be taken to the local hospital for treatment. The judge said that the victim should be taken to a mental hospital based on the report from a government hospital where he was taken for treatment.

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