Thiruvananthapuram, March 3 A 65-year-old woman died here on Tuesday, a day after allegedly setting herself on fire due to depression over her husband's long-term illness, police said.
Although news reports claimed that she had prepared a funeral pyre in the backyard of her house in Neyyattinkara and sat on it, police said they are still verifying the information.
Police said that based on their initial findings, the woman had poured kerosene over herself in the backyard of her home, where she had kept logs and coconut husks to burn waste material.
"We need to confirm whether a funeral pyre was actually built or not," an officer of the Neyyattinkara police station said.
The incident occurred on Monday morning after she returned home from the private hospital where her husband was admitted.
She suffered 90 per cent burns in the incident, police said.
An inquest is currently underway, and after a postmortem is conducted, the body will be handed over to the family.
A case of unnatural death has been registered, and an investigation has been launched, it added.