Police in Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province are to conduct a lie detector test on a key witness as they investigate the controversial death of a village head.

The witness, Qian Chengyu, told several villagers that he saw four masked men in black holding Qian Yunhui, 53, head of Zhaiqiao Village, down to the ground on a road last Saturday morning, China Radio reported yesterday.

Qian Chengyu, in his 40s, told the villagers that he was pulled away by two of the four men when he tried to stop them. When he looked back, he saw a red truck running over Qian Yunhui at a slow speed, the radio quoted the villagers as saying.

However, at a press conference last Sunday, police said the death was just "a common accident."

Wenzhou police told China Radio that Qian Chengyu had been detained on Sunday for allegedly possessing drugs and beating police officers. They claimed Qian merely saw what he called "safety guards" standing near the truck, rather than witnessing the death.

Brake marks

Police said they would investigate Qian's claims, including administering a polygraph test, but insisted the current available evidence didn't suggest foul play.

Photos showing damage to the truck's front bumper and brake marks were posted on the Wenzhou government's official website. Police said the photos indicated that the village leader had been knocked down from the left and then run over by the truck. They said the photographs dispelled rumors that the driver had intended to kill the victim.

Zhang Chunqiao, a spokesman for the Wenzhou government, said yesterday that claims by the village leader's wife that Qian Yunhui had gone to the spot after receiving a phone call would be investigated.

A female villager told China Youth Daily on Tuesday that she was also at the scene last Saturday. She said she saw four men wearing white gloves and black masks gripping Qian Yunhui's hands and neck, forcing him to lie on the road. One man waved his hand, and a red truck drove towards the scene. She was then chased away by the men, the newspaper said.

Social disorder

Meanwhile, Zhao Xun, a son-in-law of Qian Yunhui's, said he had been beaten up by police after he was detained at the scene of the accident, the Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday. He and his wife, among six villagers detained for causing social disorder after the accident, were freed on Monday night.

Questions about whether police are involved in a cover-up regarding Saturday's incident are proliferating on Internet forums.

Yu Jianrong, director of the Institute of Rural Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he was planning to lead a team of volunteer experts to conduct an independent investigation into Qian Yunhui's accusations of land abuse by Yueqing County officials.

Yu said the team would focus on a dispute in which villagers claimed farmland was illegally appropriated by officials to build a power plant.

Villagers didn't received any of the 38 million yuan (US$5.7 million) compensation mentioned in Wenzhou government documents dated 2005, yesterday's China Youth Daily reported. Some 10.26 million yuan had been transferred to the village's public account, but the whereabouts of the rest was unknown, a village official said.