A 28-year-old woman, suffering from an alleged psychiatric problem, jumped into the burning pyre of her elder brother in Rajasthan’s tribal Dungarpur district on Friday evening after others had left the cremation ground.
Police said the woman, who was married with three children, had been living with her mother and three brothers for last four years.
On Thursday night, Wela Ram Manat, 32, was returning from Dungarpur city to his village, Satirampur, when he met with an accident in front of the Dungarpur railway station, said Vinod Kumar Laxkar, station house officer of Dungarpur Sadar police station. The man was identified on Friday morning and the body was taken to hospital for postmortem examination.
The body was handed over to Manat’s family in the afternoon. They took it for cremation, about half a kilometer from their house. After half the pyre had burnt, the family members and other left the cremation ground for other rituals.
This was when Wela Ram’s younger sister, Durga, was seen jumping into the pyre by a 14-year-old whose house is close to the crematorium. He raised an alarm and soon police was called in. “When we reached, her body was mostly burnt,” the SHO said. “We called medical jurist at the spot and after getting satisfied that there was no foul play, handed over the body to the family.”
{{/usCountry}}This was when Wela Ram’s younger sister, Durga, was seen jumping into the pyre by a 14-year-old whose house is close to the crematorium. He raised an alarm and soon police was called in. “When we reached, her body was mostly burnt,” the SHO said. “We called medical jurist at the spot and after getting satisfied that there was no foul play, handed over the body to the family.”
{{/usCountry}}Wela Ram had two brothers and a sister. He and the second sibling worked as labourers while the third brother, Dinesh, is deputy sarpanch of the village. “Her husband refused to take her back after she was diagnosed with the problem,” he said.
The woman’s children are with their father. Dinesh said she was under treatment for the problem from a doctor in Udaipur. “She wasn’t taking medicines for some time. I was planning to take her to the doctor in a day or two,” he said.