Indian police are hunting the sons of a woman who burnt...

Indian police are hunting the sons of a woman who burnt herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre. They suspect that the men forced her to commit suttee so they could claim their inheritance. Witnesses said that Kutta Bai, 65, burnt to death in front of thousands of onlookers in the remote village of Tamoli. The crowd was drawn by the rare spectacle of a traditional suttee, or widow burning, a custom that is now outlawed.
People who gathered hours before the funeral watched as the widow climbed on to her husband's funeral pyre and laid her head in his lap.
A female elder called police in a neighbouring village, warning them that a suttee was about to take place. Two officers went to the scene and found the widow sitting on the pyre as the flames leapt around her.
As they tried to pull her down, the crowd began pelting them with stones. Villagers cheered and clapped as the fire engulfed Kutta Bai and the policemen ran from the flames.
When senior police officers reached the village later that day they found it deserted. The villagers had apparently fled, fearing arrest for abetting the suttee, a crime that carries the death penalty.
Fifteen people were subsequently arrested, but police are still searching for Kutta Bai's sons, Ashoke Nai, 35, and Rajkumar, 26. They say that Ashoke Nai lit the funeral pyre as his mother sat on top of it and that the brothers then stood back and watched as their mother burnt to death.
"They will be facing murder charges," Savita Shoney, a local police official, said. "We suspect them of pushing their 65-year-old mother into this because they simply wanted to grab her property."
The death of Kutta Bai is the first reported case of suttee since Roop Kanwar, an 18-year-old widow, died on her husband's funeral pyre in 1987. Her death caused national outrage and highlighted the widening chasm between traditional rural India and the affluent urban classes.