A tribal kangaroo court in Birbhum’s Parui allegedly forced a farmer to chop off all fingers on his 66-year-old father’s hands after the elderly man was accused of witchcraft following claims he prayed “moving his fingers on the floor”.

The Monday night horror unfolded at the home of Fandi Sardar in Radhakrishnapur village, barely 12km from Santiniketan, before a crowd of 100 that included the village headman.

The incident followed a week-long “social boycott” of the family after an ojha (witch doctor) linked a girl’s illness to an evil spell from Fandi’s way of praying.

Fandi’s son Harichandra, who cut off his father’s fingers with a chopper, has been arrested along with a nephew, Jatan Sardar, and four others. This followed a complaint from Fandi’s elder son Lakshmiram, who named 12 persons.

“Fandi is my uncle and we cut off his fingers because the villagers would not let us live in the area if we did not do so,” Jatan said from the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital where his uncle has been admitted. Jatan was arrested soon after.

“All fingers on Fandi’s hands have been cut off and there is also an injury on the right side of his face. But he is stable,” said hospital superintendent Utpal Dan.

Birbhum police chief Kunal Aggarwal said an investigation was on to “find out what led to the brutality”.

According to Fandi’s family and a section of villagers, the trouble started after a Class IX girl fell ill. Some residents brought the ojha

(witch doctor) from neighbouring Raipur village on October 4 and a yagna (fire ritual) was performed.

A meeting in the presence of village headman Anil Sardar followed and it was decided that since “Fandi’s sorcery involved the moving of his fingers on the floor”, they should be chopped off. Anil denied allegations that the chopping was carried out on his orders. “The entire village wanted it and his son Harichandra did the job in presence of the villagers,” Anil said.

Fandi’s granddaughter Ruma alleged the family had been threatened with eviction.

“The Class IX girl blamed my grandfather for practising witchcraft. Last Thursday, after the kangaroo court verdict, a large number of villagers came to our house, beat us up and threatened to drive us out of our house. But that day, my grandfather’s fingers were not cut off as we requested them with folded hands not to do so,” Ruma said.

According to Ruma, the trigger behind Monday night’s brutality was a fresh claim by the sick Class IX girl hours before that she had “seen a witch moving around her”.

“A witch cast her spell over me under Fandi’s direction and I became ill. Fandi dadu had asked my father to sacrifice three goats to please the witch that cast the spell on me. So, he was punished by the villagers,” the girl said on Wednesday.

Fandi’s family said “they had no option” other than cutting his fingers as the entire village trusted the ojha and his word.

“We live in this village and so we had to obey the verdict of the kangaroo court,” Fandi’s wife Sushila said.

Jatan, the nephew, echoed his aunt. “Harichandra was forced to cut off his father’s fingers.”