A woman has been accused of killing her father-in-law by squeezing his testicles during a row about a cockfight.

Police say victim Gau Kerketta dropped dead on the spot after his son's wife, Anima Kharia, lunged at him and grabbed his genitals like a vice.

He had been trying to defuse a bust up between Kharia and his son Bhairaw after the pair's rooster lost a fight in India.

Anima Kharia is being detained at Gumla Jail in Jharkhand, India, following the death of her father-in-law

'The couple was probably drunk,' said police officer Ashok Kumar. 'The father-in-law tried to pacify them but the woman grabbed his testicles and squeezed them.

'The man died on the spot.'

Kharia, in her mid-thirties, is said to have confessed to killing Gau, but claimed it was accidental.

The argument broke out over an illegal cockfight, police have said following Gau Kerketta's death

'The man died of excessive bleeding,' officer Kumar said. 'This was one of the causes mentioned in the autopsy report.'

Kharia is being held at Gumla jail as the investigation continues.

But she and her husband have dodged charges of taking part in a cockfight at a village fair in Saitola in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

The 'sport' is banned in the region after protests by animal-rights activists.