Who ya gonna call ? ... Copbusters

NEW DELHI - Malevolent ghosts stealing your chickens and torturing you in the night? Who you gonna call?

For farmer Sunil Das, it was the police, but they just laughed, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Tuesday.

Unfortunately for them, a judge in India's northeastern Assam state didn't see the humour. The judge ordered police to investigate Das' allegation that ghosts controlled by his neighbours were making off with his poultry at night.

In his complaint, Das accused his neighbours of using "obedient but malevolent" ghosts to "subjecting me to physical and mental torture," the newspaper reported.

Das said his neighbours were notorious for using black magic against people against whom they had a grudge.

Superstitions and belief in ghosts are widespread in India, particularly in rural villages.

Police working the case described it as a first.

"We have dealt with hardcore criminals and armed militants but this is the first time we are required to pursue a case with a spooky angle to it," the newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying. "We are yet to crack the case but investigations are on."