Police arrest four brothers for allegedly throwing mother on father's funeral pyre

INDIA: Indian police have arrested four brothers for allegedly throwing their 95-year-old mother onto their father's funeral pyre, in accordance with an old but illegal Hindu custom that persists in rural pockets of India, media reports said Friday.

The incident took place Wednesday evening in the village of Baniyani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The brothers and villagers initially said the woman, Kuria Devi, climbed into the flames by herself, committing sati, as the ritual suicide is known. Sati has been banned for nearly two centuries.

However police investigating the death said she was too old and frail to have clambered up alone.

Even if she did, none of the 20 people at the funeral stopped her, so they will be arrested for abetting sati, local police chief Chanchal Kumar told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

The brothers face murder charges.

India has struggled in recent decades to end sati. While rare, the practice persists mainly in rural regions where widows are often shunned because of a belief they will bring bad luck and tragedy to the community.

Under Indian law, promising financial or spiritual benefits to a woman's family for committing sati can be punished by a life prison sentence. Even standing aside as a woman throws herself on a funeral pyre can attract a life term.

New Delhi, Friday, AP