A married woman who tried to elope with her Dalit lover met a gruesome death when her husband and in-laws tried to hang her, set her on fire as she was hanging and then put her out on a burning pyre in Madhya Pradesh, police said on Monday.
The dance of death - yet another instance of honour killing - played out for two hours in Lahar village of Murena district, police said. Murena is over 450km from the state capital.
Guddi, wife of Dhaniram, had fled with her lover. She was caught and her husband and in-laws killed her Oct 20 morning, police said. However, villagers did not let the matter reach the police.
Only on Sunday was an FIR registered after the woman's father complained.
Police said the woman was first hung from a tree. But on finding that she was still breathing, she was beaten up, doused with kerosene oil and set on fire.
Since the fire was not lit properly, they finally laid her on a pyre and burnt her to death, police said.
The entire act played out over two hours near Bhumia Baba Temple in the village and the whole village watched, police said.
"Four people have been made accused in the case, including the woman's husband. I have got information that one of them was arrested too. However, I don't have much details right now about the arrested person," Murena Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Singh told IANS.