His brother Chetan Singh Parihar said that he is quite normal while talking to his family, but just refuses to go out of the house.

'He eats food and acts normal...and even responds when I talk to him. But when I ask him to go outside and meet people, he keeps silent and if I try to bring him out, he cries loudly and behaves abnormally,' Chetan said.

'The way he is leading his life has made our life pathetic too...we don't know how to handle the problem. We don't have money to pay specialised doctors also,' he rued.

A senior district official has now offered medical and financial help to the troubled family.

'It's really quite an unusual case. Gautam starts crying and running back to his house when someone tries to bring him out during daytime. It seems he has serious allergy to light and sun rays,' J.P. Singh, assistant director of the panchayat and social welfare department in Dhamtari, told IANS.

'I am trying to provide some financial help to Gautam's debt-ridden family through my department. I have asked a doctor to examine Guatam and he said that the patient has no mental problem but is very scared of facing daylight,' Singh added.

(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at sujeet.k@ians.in)