The shocking incident took place in Candolim village. (Representational image)
Her world came crashing down when she figured that the Mumbai man she had married already had a wife. Heartbroken, she came back home in north Goa but her family could not cope with her "abnormal behaviour" and locked her up in a room.
It was her world for the next 20 years.
When a team of women police officers rescued her, she was naked and was reluctant to move out of the dirty room, a senior Goa police officer told news agency Press Trust of India. The woman, reported to be in her fifties, hadn't stepped out in a long time.
It turned out that the woman had been locked in a dark room at the rear of her parents' house for nearly 20 years. Her only contact with the world outside was a window, through which "she was served food and water" by her two brothers and their family who lived in the ancestral house.
The shocking incident took place in Candolim village, not far from the beach resorts that draw thousands of tourists from within the country and abroad. The police has sent the woman for treatment.
The team had raided the house on information provided by 'Bailancho Saad', a civil society group that works for women's rights. The non-profit had received a tip off over email from a person who claimed to have seen the woman.
Quoting her family members, the police officer said the woman had married a man from Mumbai. But she returned home after learning that he already had a wife.
"Her family members locked her in the room after she started behaving abnormally after her return from Mumbai," the officer said, according to PTI.
"We are yet to arrest anyone in this case. The investigation is still at primary stage. The statement of family members of the woman is being recorded," he said.