Two policemen were held captive by a mob in Muzaffarpur district for more than five hours on Friday for delayed arrival at the site of the mysterious death of a youth.

The cops — Jai Kishore Kumar, acting station house officer and Shankhnath Singh, an assistant sub-inspector posted at Maniari police station — faced the ire of a mob at Madhaul village after reaching the spot nearly eight hours after receiving information about the death of a 25-year-old.

The residents had informed the police around 1am about the death of Suresh Kumar Gupta, whose body was recovered from Rampur Kashi village around midnight. The residents suspected that Gupta was murdered and his body dumped at the village.

The police, however, reached the scene of crime around 9am on Friday. On seeing the two policemen, the residents lost their cool and hurled abuses at them. They were later confined in a room in the house of one Anil Sahni, suspected to be involved in the incident.

As a big crowd had assembled, the acting SHO sent an urgent message to the district police headquarters seeking reinforcements.

A police team led by assistant superintendent of police Arvind Kumar Gupta rushed to Madhaul village and rescued the captive policemen.

The victim’s relatives told the police that Gupta, a daily wage earner, had left the house with Anil and his associate Raj Kumar Sahni on Thursday morning. He was found dead near Rampur Kashi village on Maniari-Mahua road around midnight. Gupta’s motorcycle was found abandoned nearby.

The residents were so agitated with the police inaction that they did not allow the policemen to take the body for post-mortem.

Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police Saurabh Kumar said departmental proceedings would be initiated against the officers concerned for dereliction of duty.