Long nails, unkempt hair, foul smell: 3 siblings lock up after parents' death in Anantapur

Anantapur: Spider webs, rats, and empty food packets lay scattered inside a dingy room. In a dark corner, three frightened siblings scurried for cover when police stormed in. A Psychiatrist accompanying cops tried hard to reassure the trio about their safety. After hours of counseling, three siblings finally gave in. It was after three years that the trio saw the outside world. They rubbed their eyes as they saw the sunlight for the first time after two years.

Tirupal Shetty, Jayalakshmi, and Krishna Veni lost their father in 2016. A year later their mother died of cancer. Their father Ramayya Shetty used to run an eatery and was well-respected in the neighborhood.

COVID-19

Covid 19 made things worse for the trio. Since lockdown, they locked themselves up and did not come out of the house or talk to anyone. Only Tirupal Shetty used to come out occasionally to buy food parcels and water. Even their power connection was snapped because they failed to pay bills for several months.

Foul smell

After a bad smell started emanating from their house, the neighbors alerted Superintendent of Police (SP) Fakirappa. His police team along with the municipal administration reached the spot and found the trio inside in a very unhygienic condition.

Waste, spider webs, rats:

It was no less than a nightmare for the officials, who found spider webs, rats, and tonnes of empty food packets dumped inside. The trio was in a worse condition with frizzy hair uncombed for months and overgrown nails. They did not even bathe for months. The officials had to forcefully enter the house and take the help of the municipal sanitation staff. Later cops sought the help of an Assistant Professor in the Psychiatry Department, Government General Hospital B. Varadaraju, to counsel the trio. He finally convinced them to come out. They were later shifted to a hospital for treatment

First reaction:

"We are fine. After my parent's death, we were depressed and did not want to come out. We used to get food from the nearby hotel. For survival, we had a sufficient amount in the bank account, which I used to withdraw," said Tirupal Shetty, one of the siblings. Even though the siblings were brought out, they said they are still not ready to interact with people.