Amid the controversy over ‘Santhara’, an 82-year-old woman, who publicly resumed the Jain religious ritual of voluntary fast unto death after the Supreme Court stayed the High Court ban on it, passed away here on Saturday.
Badni Devi, who has been on fast for over one month, breathed her last at 8 a.m. She quit food and was living only on little amount of water. She died in a way she had wished, family member Surendra Daga said.
She took the resolution of ‘Santhara’ on July 17 though the ritual was socially undertaken on July 25, Jain Mahasabha secretary of Bikaner Jain Lunkaran Chajed said.
On August 10, when the Rajasthan High Court had held ‘Santhara’ illegal, she continued her fast albeit secretly and family members called it ‘tapasya’.
