Alipurduar, March 11: A witch doctor, who had been invited to treat a mentally challenged man at Harinathpur in Deogaon gram panchayat, landed himself in jail after raping the “patient’s” wife yesterday.

Aful Mia (28) often tried to attack his family members and neighbours. The petty trader of agricultural produces has been suffering from mental disorder for the past few months.

Md Mustafa Kamal, a resident of Baneswar in Cooch Behar district, was invited to treat Aful. Kamal has been frequenting Harinathpur, about 45km from his native place, for the past three-four months to “cure” villagers. He has around 20 “patients” in the area.

Yesterday, early in the morning, Kamal reached Aful’s house. After “examining” the “patient”, the witch doctor asked Aful to take a bath.

“As Aful went to take a bath, Kamal raped his wife. The witch doctor even tried to suppress the incident and asked my sister-in-law to keep quiet about it. But she refused to budge and lodged an FIR with the Falakata police station in the night,” said Rashida Bibi. “We want justice,” she added.

As the incident came to light, Kamal (49) left Aful’s house to treat other “patients” in the area.

On the basis of the victim’s complaint, Kamal was picked up from a house in the locality and was charged under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC. The woman was sent to the Alipurduar hospital for a medical test.

Kamal has been remanded in jail custody for 14 days by the additional chief judicial magistrate here today, said Samir Majumder, the assistant public prosecutor in court.