Lucknow: An eight-year-old boy was run over allegedly by a car in an Uttar Pradesh minister's convoy on Saturday evening, with residents claiming the errant vehicle was part of a formation of three speeding side by side on a narrow road.

The father of the boy, who had panicked and tried to cross the road because of the sound of sirens from the 20-car convoy, and many other residents alleged that police resorted to a lathicharge when they protested later.

Backward caste development minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, who had courted controversy earlier this month by threatening to detain parents in police stations without food and water if they did not send their children to school, denied that his convoy was involved in an accident last evening.

Shiva Goswami's father Vishwanath said the boy was walking home from a shop in Gonda, 120km east of Lucknow, when he heard the sound of sirens on the cramped Colonelganj-Paraspur Road.

"He panicked and ran to cross the road to reach home. Eyewitnesses told me that three cars at the head of the convoy were travelling side by side and the one on the right ran over my son," Vishwanath said.

"The convoy, which had police escorts, slowed down for a few seconds and then sped away," he added.

Later when Gosainpurva village residents blocked the road in protest, local policemen lathicharged them. The police also allegedly refused to accept a complaint initially but later lodged a case against unknown persons.

"The police lathicharged my family members and other villagers when we tried to block the road demanding the immediate arrest of the killers," Vishwanath said. "Police officers forced me to remove the name of the minister from the complaint," he alleged.

Sadanand Singh, the officer in charge of Colonelganj police station, denied the allegation. "The complainant did not mention any name."

Shiva died of head injuries at the district hospital.

On Sunday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for Shiva's parents and ordered director-general of police Sulkhan Singh to probe the case.

Rajbhar, the leader of BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, told reporters in Ballia: "I had passed through the area in the afternoon after attending a programme in Colonelganj and came to know about the accident after reaching Ballia. None of the cars in my convoy ran over the child. I have informed the chief minister about this and asked the police to arrest the culprit."

In July, Rajbhar had threatened resignation and a dharna after the chief minister ignored his demand to transfer the Gazipur district magistrate, who had lodged a case against one of Rajbhar's relatives in a land-grab case. Later, Rajbhar had claimed Adityanath had censured the DM.