Posted on 09/18/2006 7:11:23 AM PDT by sully777
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The leaders of a village in the Indian state of Rajasthan ordered 150 men to dip their hands into boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen from a local school, a newspaper reported Sunday.
In late August the school's principal informed police that rice and wheat had disappeared but no action was taken, the Sunday Express said.
The council, or panchayat, of Ranpur village, 340 km (210 miles) south of state capital Jaipur, then decided to take the law into its own hands.
After 10 days spent trying to identify those responsible, it issued what the paper called the "medieval diktat."
The 150 men from Ranpur and two neighboring hamlets were told to pick a copper ring from a cauldron of boiling oil. The council elders then announced that the 50 who refused the order must be behind the crime. Many are now nursing their burns.
"We would have been ostracized had we refused. Out of fear all of us agreed. This is not the first time this has been done," said one 45-year-old man. He has now testified against the elders, who have been arrested.
Did the elders put their hands in?
Let's hope there's not much crime in that town.
There wouldn't be many hands left to scald.
Come Halloween they can bob for french fries. You know, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade...
Don't worry after 600 years of progress, it will be organic oil for the boiling. (this will make the hippies happy)
"The History of Jurisprudence, the Oily Years"
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