A woman who joined a cult after her divorce died during a starvation challenge set by its leader.
Iinterior designer Elena Smorodinova, 35, joined the Sai Baba cult after a difficult split from her husband.
Her relatives and friends claim that since she joined Sai Baba in the city of Novosibirsk in south-central Russia two years ago, Elena has shut herself away from them.
Elena, from Siberia used to be an open and cheerful person, they say, but changed completely on joining the cult.
The group was led by former fashion designer and psychologist Elena Baykova, also known as Lola-Lila.
Baykova claims to be a proxy of guru Sathya Sai Baba, who died in 2011.
One of Smorodinova's friends says that Lola challenged Elena to go on long fasts and forbade her to stay in touch with her pals.
Elena managed to survive several of Lola's fasting challenges.
The last and fatal hunger task that was given to Elena was to go without food for three weeks and without water for the first two weeks of that.
Elena reportedly told Lola she wanted to quit but passed away from dehydration and malnutrition.
Elena's friends are convinced that Lola deliberately set such cruel tasks for their friend in order to harm her.
They suspect she was jealous of Elena and her unnamed boyfriend, who liked to text her despite the ban on communications.
Since the death Lola has been on the run, as she may face charges of influencing a person to commit suicide.
There was no comment from anyone else in the Sai Baba cult, and it is not known whether it is still operating.
