The man, identified as Kedar Pandey, poured keresone on himself to commit suicide but the alert policemen prevented him from lighting a matchstick, Superintendent of Police (SP) Jayant Kant said.
A resident of Vilap village in Bihta police station area in Patna district, Pandey was protesting against non-arrest of the accused in the murder of his nephew Shiv Kumar Pandey, he said.
Pandey said that his nephew was murdered by the assailants over a land dispute in February and his body was recovered from a well, but the accused were still at large under the patronage of the policemen of Bihta police station, Kant said.