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SINGAPORE (The Straits Times), October 12, 2008

AN ELDERLY woman in the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh jumped into her husband's funeral pyre, killing herself in an outlawed custom, police said on Sunday, according to a Reuters report from Raipur.

Lalmati Verma, 71, immolated herself on Saturday after mourners had left the cremation site, said police officer B.R. Mandawi in Kasdol, 125 km from state capital Raipur.

'She was reduced to ashes soon,' Mr Mandawi said, adding her three sons had not been aware of their mother's intention to commit sati. Decades ago, sati was an act of devotion by a faithful wife following her dead husband, before British colonial rulers banned it in 1829.

At the village of Chechar, dozens of people gathered at the site on the bank of river Shivnath on Sunday to pay their respects.

Investigations were being conducted, Mr Mandawi said.

India tightened laws against sati in 1987 after a young woman jumped into her husband's pyre, watched by thousands of people. Her death sparked a national outrage and forced the government to issue a ban on the glorification of sati.

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