A man died under mysterious circumstances in Basti. The family of the victim and local residents staged a protest alleging that the cops terrorised the man so much that he died.

The police, however, claimed that they went to grill the man but just as they knocked at his home, he suddenly collapsed and died of cardiac arrest.

Senior police officers tried to defuse the situation saying that they would get the matter probed and would also go through the post-mortem report before taking any further action in the matter.

The incident took place in Hyderabad village under Parasrampur police station of Basti district.

According to reports, 58-year-old Jameel was going to a Bengali doctor's house to take medicine in the early hours of Monday. It is alleged that as Jameel came out of his house, two police constables -- Vivek Yadav and Vijay Prakash -- suddenly came and tried to nab him so Jameel rushed back to his home and locked the door. The villagers and family members alleged that the cops chased Jameel and also assaulted him before he somehow reached home and closed the door.

Both the constables kicked at the door and asked him to open it. The situation suddenly took an ugly turn when Jameel collapsed and was later pronounced dead after the family members rushed him to a nearby hospital. The cops claimed that Jameel died of a heart attack.

Constables Vivek Yadav and Vijay Prakash are posted at Sikandarpur outpost.

The news of the death of Jameel spread like a wildfire and hundreds of villagers gathered and blocked the road, demanding action against both the constables. A police force arrived at the village along with sub-divisional magistrate and circle officer and tried to pacify the villagers but they were adamant about punishment to the cops. The villagers also alleged that the two constables were extorting money from villagers after threatening to send them to jail in any fake case.

Later senior officers arrived and sent both the constables to reserve police lines and also constituted a probe to punish the cops if they were found guilty. This pacified the villagers and they called off the protest.

Meanwhile, four houses collapsed in a powerful explosion in Jhala village in Motipur police station area of Bahraich early on Monday morning. The explosion left a girl dead and three critically injured after they were buried under the rubble of the collapsed houses.

The Motipur cops who reached the spot got the rubble removed with the help of fire personnel and shifted the injured to hospital.

While the local residents claimed that fire crackers stored in a house had exploded, the local police said a cylinder had exploded.

Reports said that a powerful explosion took place in Janjahan's house at Jhala gram panchayat under Motipur police station at around 11 am on Monday and the house was razed to the ground.

The explosion was so powerful that three adjacent houses also collapsed. Janjahan's daughter Nisha died in the blast while three other family members were critically injured. The blast was so powerful that the roof of the house was blown to pieces and the rubble fell about 500 metres away.

The police are probing the matter and have sent the rubble to a forensic lab to confirm whether some explosive had exploded or a cooking gas cylinder had exploded.