Kathmandu, Aug 26 - An ailing man who returned home in far western Nepal after falling ill in India's Pune city has been thrown out of his village due to mistaken fears that he had contracted swine flu and could infect others.

Thakur Prasad Chaudhari, who was working as a labourer in India's Maharasthra state, had returned home Saturday to his village Janakinagar in remote Kailali district.

Chaudhari, in his 20s, who belongs to the underprivileged Tharu community once treated as bonded slaves, had been diagnosed by a Pune hospital two weeks ago as suffering from anaemia and advised rest, a media report said.

But the people in his village, who had learnt through television about the outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) in Pune, where the death toll has gone up to 25, refused to believe Chaudhary and accused him of having contracted swine flu, the Naya Patrika daily reported Wednesday.

'He showed them the doctor's prescriptions and even the medicines he was taking but no one paid any heed,' Chaudhary's wife Sita told the daily.

After being persecuted by the villagers, Chaudhary has now been forced to take shelter in Nepalgunj town in Banke district, the daily added.

Not satisfied with throwing Chaudhary out, the villagers, wrongly fearing that his family could have been affected and could pass on the infection to others, are now ostracising his wife and children.