Indian police find Russian mum and her daughters living in an isolated cave after 'overstaying visa'
The woman, identified as 40-year-old Nina Kutina and her daughters aged six and four, were found by police during a routine patrol to Ramatirtha Hill, a popular tourist site on the coast of Karnataka, on July 9.
Police officer Sridhar SR said the family had been living in the cave for more than a week.
Police said they were taking steps to repatriate Ms Kutina to Russia for overstaying her visa.
She and her children have been moved to a nearby detention facility for foreigners living illegally in India.
Police said in a statement that Ms Kutina spent her time in the cave meditating by candlelight, and that she told investigating officers she was "interested in staying in the forest and worshipping God."
On Tuesday, she told news agency Press Trust of India that she spent her days in the cave by painting, singing, reading books and living peacefully with her children.
"[It was shown on TV] about we were not having a good life before and they saved us from it," Ms Kutina said, according to an AFP report.
"It is [a] big, big lie because I have a lot of video material, photo material and people who know us.
Ms Kutina also rejected claims that she had overstayed her visa period in India, and said the detention facility she was taken to with her children was "very not good place".
"Police say they found my old passport and I was in India already before," she told the Press Trust of India.
"We had already left India and had come back with a new visa. So, mistaken information came … so much fantasy about us. So, we were not for all these years in India, we had already [flown] to four countries more."
"This month is the last month of my visa.
"They bring us to very not good place. [There are] no people. We cannot be alone and here [is] very dirty. Not enough of food, we cannot go outside ... A lot of our things [were] taken from us. They took the ashes of my son who died nine months ago and our medicines and everything."
Mr Sridhar said Ms Kutina told police that she had worked as a tutor of Russian language in Goa, a coastal tourist state in southern India.
"It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here," said Mr Sridhar.
He said police found pictures of Hindu deities on the inside walls of the cave where Ms Kutina had been living. In a photograph provided by the police, she is seen in front of makeshift curtains made of red saris that covered the entrance to the cave.
The Russian Embassy in New Delhi didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The police statement said Ms Kutina sent a message to her friends after she was found.
"Our peaceful life in the cave has ended — our cave home destroyed," she wrote in the message, according to the statement.
The Associated Press contacted Ms Kutina over the phone but she declined to comment.
AP/AFP
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