Dead Woman's Husband Beaten To Death During Her Funeral

A man was beaten to death by his dead wife's relatives during her funeral Sunday in a town located in the south Indian state of Karnataka. The woman died after she set herself ablaze and her relatives blamed her husband for the suicide, local media said.

The woman, who was identified as Kajal Tambe from Kilarhatti village in the town of Vijayapura — located 330 miles north of Bangalore — had moved to the west Indian state of Maharashtra after she married Raju Shivaji Tambe. The couple had moved to Maharashtra in search of work, local newspaper the Times of India reported.

On Sunday, Kajal killed herself at her home in Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra. While the reason behind Kajal's decision to kill herself remained unclear, her body was brought to her family home in Karnataka for the funeral later that day. During the funeral rites, Kajal's relatives blamed her husband for her suicide and beat him with wooden logs, killing him. Raju's brother, who reportedly intervened to help the man, was also injured in the incident.

Criminal charges were filed against the relatives after Raju's father reported the incident to police. Other details about the incident remained unknown at the time of writing.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in India. Married women sometimes resort to it, since they face two problems that are still rampant in India — the preference for a male child and domestic violence for reasons like dowry — despite laws to the contrary.

In September, a study conducted by Lancet Public Health journal revealed that nearly two in every five women in the world who kill themselves are Indian. According to the study, Indian women who died by suicide were more likely to be married and, by a large margin, aged below 35. The suicide death rate for women in India was 15 per 100,000 women, more than double that of the global suicide rate for women in 2016, which was seven per one 100,000 women. Married women accounted for the high proportion of suicide deaths in India, the study stated.

“Marriage is known to be less protective against suicide for women because of arranged and early marriage, young motherhood, low social status, domestic violence, and economic dependence,” the report stated.