Mumbai: Police have registered a case of attempted murder against the former husband of a 50-year-old American woman who was discovered tied to a tree with an iron chain in a forest in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district. The case was filed based on a note written by the woman at a hospital, according to a senior police official on Tuesday.

The woman claimed in her note that her former husband had chained her in the forest at Sonurli village in the coastal Sindhudurg district, approximately 450 km from Mumbai, and then abandoned her. She was found on Saturday evening by a shepherd who heard her cries and alerted the police. The authorities found her Aadhaar card with a Tamil Nadu address and a photocopy of her U.S. passport, identifying her as Lalita Kayi.

Her visa had expired, and she had been in India for the past ten years. She was transported to a hospital in neighboring Goa for treatment, where doctors noted she suffers from psychiatric issues. The police also found medical prescriptions in her possession.

Sindhudurg Superintendent of Police Saurabh Agrawal stated that the case was registered based on the woman's note under charges of attempted murder, acts endangering life or personal safety, and wrongful confinement under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The woman's official statement has yet to be recorded, but an investigation has begun.

Authorities are working to verify the claims in the woman's note and are currently tracing her former husband and other relatives in Tamil Nadu and Goa. The prescriptions recovered from her suggest she was being treated for a psychiatric illness, with one official suspecting schizophrenia.