In a shocking incident in the Indian state of Rajasthan, the leaders of a village ordered 150 men to dip their hands into boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen from a local school.

The Sunday Express reports that the school's principal informed police in late August regarding some rice and wheat being stolen but police did not take any action.

The council of Ranpur village, 210 miles south of state capital Jaipur, then decided to punish the suspects on their own.

But after spending 10 days trying to identify the culprit, the council issued a "medieval diktat" that ordered 150 men to pick a copper ring from a cauldron of boiling oil.

In this bizaare trial, the fifty men who refused the order wo burn themselves must be behind the crime. One hundred men completed the task, and 50 refused. The injured men 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.

The man, along with others has testified against the elders, who have been arrested.