Indian woman who was cremated may have been burnt alive, husband and others accused of killing her

AsiaOne
3 March 2017

A woman in India was brought to a funeral pyre to be cremated after apparently dying of a lung infection, but her body was dramatically pulled out of the pyre midway by police.

Now, it is unclear whether she had legitimately died, was accidentally cremated after a mistake by the hospital, or burnt alive by her husband.

The victim, 24-year-old Rachna Sisodia, had reportedly been pronounced dead by doctors at a hospital in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Feb 25.

Her husband, 23-year-old Devesh Chaudhary, then took possession of her body and brought it to a cremation site.

But Indian Express reported that as she was being cremated, police pulled her out from the funeral pyre, after family members alleged that she was being burnt alive.

She showed no signs of breathing thereafter. However, a post-mortem report after the cremation said that "ash found in her respiratory tract suggested she may have been alive and breathing when she was being cremated", the Times of India reported.

But, Dr Pankaj Mishra, who conducted the post-mortem, said that he could not confirm that the body was actually that of Rachna, as it was 70 per cent burnt.

Mail Online also reported two doctors as saying that the cause of her death was not a lung infection, but "shock caused from being burnt alive".

The hospital that pronounced her dead intially has stood by its diagnosis.

The tale takes an even more sinister twist, however, as Rachna's maternal uncle, Kailash Singh, has accused her husband and ten others of sexually assaulting and killing her, according to Hindustan Times.

All the accused have disappeared, but her husband Devesh has since said that his in-laws were trying to frame him to acquire his property.