Source: Hindustan Times
LUCKNOW, INDIA, December 28, 2000: Police stopped a 32-year-old widow, Radha Rai, from committing sati — burning herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre — December 26. Radha, who had dressed as a newly-wed bride, said she had had a dream in which she was directed to commit sati, an ancient practice in some parts of India among martial castes. According to the news report, even her children did not try to stop her. However other villages alerted the police who arrived in time. They declined to arrest her, out of “human consideration.” Had she succeeded, her relatives and others in attendance could have been prosecuted for murder. The last sati to be reported was November, 1999. Her village of Kidhauli is 270 miles miles southeast of Delhi. There are temples built at the site of satis, some visited by many devotees, mostly women.