Guwahati, June 10: Four persons of a family were stoned and buried alive at 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 — identified as Lakhan Majhi, 65, his wife Sumoni, 60, son Durga, 45, and daughter-in law Sabitri, 35, — incurred the wrath of Koilajuli Milanpur villagers after a 21-year-old youth, Gobinda, died on Saturday.

Sonitpur superintendent of police Munna Prasad Gupta said Gobinda had died after a prolonged illness, but the villagers held Lakhan, who used to regularly perform puja at the youth’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.

Subsequently, the villagers stoned the four persons and buried them in a nearby jungle when they were still breathing.

When police reached the village this morning to exhume the bodies, all the male inhabitants of the villager 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 police officer said. He added that the village headman was the main accused and they were looking for him.

This is the second incident of witchhunt in Biswanath Chariali in the past two years.

On March 18, 2006, five members of a family were beheaded by a mob, which accused them of witchcraft, 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 Kachari labour line.

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

Soon the community’s suspicions fell on Munda.

The labourers called a meeting to discuss the issue, to which Munda was also invited. When he fled with his family, their suspicion turned into belief.

His bloodthirsty pursuers caught up with him and held a kangaroo court where they questioned him about his activities. When he denied practising witchcraft, he was beaten until he “confessed” his entire family’s involvement in occult practices. The court promptly sentenced them to death.

A police officer said tribals, especially tea tribes and Santhals, strongly believe in evil spirits and approach quacks to treat ailments.

“If the patient does not recover, the tribesmen end up blaming the quack for casting an evil sprit,” he added.

Koilajuli Milanpur village is also inhabited by tea tribes.

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 awareness campaigns in the tribal-dominated areas of Sonitpur and Lower Assam’s Kokrajhar district to do away with the ill of witchcraft.