11 held after fire test of wife's fidelity

INDIAN police have arrested 11 people who asked a woman to hold a red hot iron in her hands in a test of her marital fidelity.

After a row with her husband of one month, Sangeeta Sauda, 20, was asked to prove she was as pure as the Hindu goddess Sita by holding a red hot iron and remaining unhurt in front of 300 elders of her Khanjar tribal community.

With her hands smeared with turmeric and wrapped in fig leaves, Sauda held the iron for a few seconds before throwing it away in a televised ceremony at Indore, 450 miles south of New Delhi.