THIEVES' HOT DATE WITH WORLD'S HOTTEST CHILLIES

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI, June 27 (Bernama) -- Two teenage cousins, nabbed by the police
for allegedly stealing handphones, went on a 'hot' date with red hot chilli
peppers in the northeastern state of Assam.

As part of the interrogation technique, a team of policemen from the
Sivasagar district, allegedly tortured the suspects by rubbing the 'bhut
jolokia' -- the world's hottest chillies listed in the Guinness Book of World
Records -- on their naked bodies.

But the all-night torture did not end there.

The suspected petty criminals were then forced to swallow the chillies in
the incident last Thursday, reported the Hindustan Times.

Following the incident, nearly 1,000 villagers stormed the Sivasagar police
station and demanded the local authorities punish the policemen involved in the
torture.

The suspects were picked up in their village after a neighbour lodged a
complaint that the duo had stolen the handphones, together with some recharge
coupons.

'Bhut jolokia', commonly known as 'ghost chillies', is grown in Assam.

These chillies stand at 1,041,047 heat units on the Scoville scale, by which
the piquancy or hotness of chilli is measured.

The common green chilli records 1,500 on the same scale.

In Assam, local farmers make 'chilli bombs' using the 'bhut jolokia' variety
to frighten away raiding wild elephants from their farmlands.

-- BERNAMA