MUMBAI: Police have registered a case of attempted murder against the former husband of the 50-year-old American woman after she was found tied to a tree with an iron chain in a forest in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

The case was registered based on the note written by the woman at a hospital, he said. According to the note, the woman has claimed that her former husband tied her with an iron chain in the forest at Sonurli village in the coastal Sindhudurg district, around 450 km from here, and left.

The police found her Aadhaar card with a Tamil Nadu address and a photocopy of her USA passport. She has been identified as Lalita Kayi.

Her visa has expired and she has been in India for the past 10 years. The woman was shifted to a hospital in Goa and doctors said she suffers from psychiatric problems.

“Based on the note written by the woman at the hospital, a case has been registered against her former husband on charges of attempted murder, act endangering life or personal safety of others and wrongful confinement under BNS,” Saurabh Agrawal, SP Sindhudurg, said. Police teams are currently in TN and Goa to trace her ex-husband.