Guwahati, June 10: Four members of a family were stoned and buried alive in a village in Upper Assam’s Sonitpur district last night after a kangaroo court found them guilty of practising witchcraft and sentenced them to death.

The victims — Lakhan Majhi, 65, his wife Sumoni, 60, son Durga, 45, and daughter-in law Sabitri, 35 — incurred the wrath of villagers in Koilajuli Milanpur after a 21-year-old youth, Gobinda, died on Saturday.

Sonitpur superintendent of police Munna Prasad Gupta said Gobinda had died after prolonged illness, but the villagers held Lakhan, who used to regularly perform puja at Gobinda’s residence, responsible for his death.

The villagers summoned the Majhis to village headman Bhutkori Majhi’s house for a public hearing last night.

“The entire village was present at Bhutkori’s house. The elders charged the Majhis with casting evil spells on Gobinda that resulted in his death,” an officer at Biswanath Chariali police station, under which the village falls, said.

The villagers then stoned the four and buried them in a nearby jungle while they were still breathing.

When police reached the village this morning to exhume the bodies, all the males of the village had fled.

“We interrogated a few women who said the men of the village had crushed the victims’ heads with bricks and stones and buried them even before they died,” the officer said. He added that the headman was the main accused and the police were looking for him.

This is the second time that alleged witches have been murdered in Biswanath Chariali in the past two years.

On March 18, 2006, five members of a family were beheaded by a mob at Sadharu tea estate in the heart of Biswanath Chariali. The mob then marched to a police station with the heads, chanting slogans against witchcraft and black magic.

Amir Munda, 60, his two sons and two daughters were beheaded after a mysterious ailment struck the labour lines.

Two garden workers died while several others were afflicted by the disease.

Soon, the community’s suspicions fell on Munda.

The labourers called a meeting, to which Munda was also invited. When he fled with his family, their suspicion turned to conviction.

Munda’s pursuers caught him and held a kangaroo court. When Munda denied practising witchcraft, he was beaten until he “confessed” his entire family’s involvement in occult practices. The court sentenced them to death.

According to police records, over 200 people have been killed in Assam in the past seven years for allegedly practising witchcraft.

Assam police have launched campaigns in Sonitpur and Lower Assam’s Kokrajhar district to educate people against witch-hunts.