A villager in an Uttar Pradesh district said to be politically well-connected has been booked for summoning dozens of villagers to witness a kangaroo court where he tormented a man and his minor son after accusing them of theft without any proof.

A video of Saturday’s incident purportedly shows the boy being made to rub his nose on the feet of all those who had been called by Shashikant Rai to his house in Amda village, where the father and son were punished.

Some villagers told local journalists the boy is 15.Officers from Kandwa police station in Chandauli district said a case had been registered against Rai, an affluent villager, not only for violating the Covid-19 lockdown and for hurting the man and his son.

“We have booked Rai for voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult, spreading infection of disease dangerous to life and disobedience of order duly promulgated by a public servant. An inquiry is in progress,” Dharmendra Kumar, in-charge of Kandwa police station, told local reporters on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said Rai, who is in his 40s, had called around 50 villagers to his house where he held the kangaroo court on the veranda, alleging that the 55-year-old man and his teenage son had stolen 25kg of gram from his field.

He didn’t seem to be aware that someone was recording the torment on a mobile.

The video shows people of all ages standing or sitting on the veranda or the courtyard. The man purported to be Rai is in a yellow T-shirt, black trousers and has a mask on.

The accused father is in a lungi, shirt and headgear. Hands joined above his head, he is made to turn a circle begging the villagers to pardon him.

The video shows the tormentor slapping the boy frequently. Towards the end of the clip, he picks up a stick and orders the boy to touch the feet of everyone present.

When the boy doesn’t bow too low, his accuser grabs the teen by his neck and pushes him to the ground so that his nose touches the feet of the villagers. “Maafi maang, maafi maang. Naak ragar (Apologise, apologise. Rub your nose),” he keeps repeating.

“There were policemen in the village, sitting about 50m from Rai’s bungalow…. The boy’s mother sat on the floor of the veranda and his elder sister stood helplessly. The entire village wanted to protest but none had the courage because he (Rai) is politically well-connected,” a villager recalled.

The father and the son kept saying they were innocent but Rai insisted they were thievesand must be punished, another villager said.

“One of us went to the police to complain that whatever was happening was not only a crime but also a violation of the lockdown as Rai had forced about 50 villagers to gather in front of his house. The ordeal continued for about an hour but one of us recorded the last five minutes. We circulated the video after a few hours when the police didn’t take it seriously,” the first villager said.

Rai, the villager added, often holds meetings of a Hindutva organisation in his house. The claim couldn’t be independently verified with the police.

Additional superintendent of police Prem Chanda confirmed that a case had been filed. “We have registered a case against Rai who had held the kangaroo court and are going to initiate action against him,” Chanda said.