The story of a man who was allegedly confined for years to a mental health institution after he complained about being underpaid has led critics to ask whether the police overstepped their powers.

Xu Wu.

Xu Wu, 43, said he once worked for Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp and claims his ordeal began in 2006 when he approached his bosses and told them he had been underpaid for several years.

After his lobbying failed, Xu took his beef to the authorities in Wuhan and then to Beijing, according to the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily.

The paper said Xu was confined to a mental health institution on Dec 31, 2006, after Beijing police took him back to his hometown. According to the paper, Wuhan police said he was committed because he was planning to set off an explosion.

Xu's family told the paper he had been tortured and forced by local police to confess to planning to set off a bomb after he was returned to Wuhan.

Xu's mother, Gong Lianfang, told the paper the family was forced by Wuhan police to agree to have Xu committed because police said "he would have faced criminal charges" if they did not.

A report by a hospital affiliated to the Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp in 2006 claimed Xu was suffering from paranoid psychosis.

But Xu and his father insisted he had never been diagnosed as having a mental illness, the paper reported.

Xu reportedly escaped from the mental health hospital on March 29, 2007, but was caught soon after and returned.

He escaped again on April 19 and went to the Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital in a bid to prove he was sane and should not have been committed.