Patna-tamoli, Aug. 7 : They say in these parts of Bundelkhand that the curse of the Sati is unforgiving. Kuttu Bai is the latest to carry the curse. So the villagers came from their hamlets in Sijaura and Saleha, Nayagaon and Nachna, Ganj and Gulgaon, Saharia, Matumuru. But the district administration stopped them some 3 km short of Patna-Tamoli, a village nestling in the Kaimur Hills just across the Vindhyachal range. It was not sati, the district officials and police told the villagers, but superstition and belief runs much deeper. Only so much is known as fact: 60-year-old Kuttu (not Guttu, as police had said yesterday) died of burn injuries even as her husband's pyre was burning. There were about 2,000 people around on Monday midnight, but Patna-Tamoli today bolted itself to the world. The villagers would not talk. So piecing together the events that led to Kuttu's immolation means sifting through layers of rumour, belief, superstition and conspiracy. Patna-Tamoli today is flooded with policemen, some in uniform, some in mufti. Since yesterday, about 20 arrests have been made by the district administration on charges of murder, attempt to murder, unlawful assembly and obstruction of a public servant (police officer) on duty. Among them are Kuttu's two sons - Ashok, 36, and Rajkumar, 32 - who had stood as spectators while the village erupted in a sinister celebration yesterday. A magisterial inquiry, too, has been ordered. Patna-Tamoli, a village of about 700-800 households, mostly Chaurasias who nurture betel leaf farms, is cordoned off. Villagers and gawkers on way to the crematorium by a pond are being turned back. But Kuttu's daughter Maya, who is married and lives in another village, has managed to come. 'Hum kya bole. Hum ne to suna sati ho gaye (What shall I say? I heard she has committed sati),' said the stunned 30-year-old of the dramatic events of Monday midnight. Kuttu sat on the pyre of her husband Mallu Nai (not Nayya), 65, and set herself on fire. It makes for an exotic story. A frail old woman suddenly possessed of such superhuman strength that no force on earth could stop her from sitting on her husband's pyre and setting herself on fire. But Panna district magistrate Ravindra Pastor contended that by no stretch of imagination was Kuttu's a tragic love story. 'The couple had been estranged for long. They had always quarrelled and had almost always lived separately.' Sarpanch Bimla Chaurasia agreed. Mallu, who was from the neighbouring Umaria district and had been unwell for the past three years, used to live with his in-laws in Patna-Tamoli as they had land, about 6 acres of it. Kuttu could never stand it that her husband had chosen to live off her family and they fought bitterly. The sarpanch said Kuttu's last words were: Mujhko keede padenge. Ab main zinda nahin rehna chahti (I will be devoured by insects. I don't want to live any longer).' As Kuttu always quarrelled with Mallu, she was consumed with guilt and acted out of desperation, interpreted Pastor. Another district official said she was goaded into it because interested parties wanted to take over her land. Fingers pointed at a villager by the name of Jai Narayan Pathak. Theories there's aplenty. But no one says they saw Kuttu setting herself on fire or sitting on the pyre when it was lit. Bimla said sub-inspector Harcharan Singh Ghose of the Saleha police station, 8 km from the village, and constable Nathu Lal were the first to reach the village on receiving the information. Ghose tried to drag Kuttu out of the pyre, but the angry mob pulled him away and beat him up. All of a sudden, they saw Kuttu on fire. The few villagers willing to talk vouched that the pyre caught fire 'automatically'. Sources said villagers had placed coconuts and agarbattis on the pyre. Perhaps, it caught fire from the burning incense sticks. Pastor is not sure how she got burnt. But for two to three hours, surrounding villagers knew that Mallu's widow had set herself on fire and they gathered to watch a gruesome ritual.