Flickr.com Noida - A Suburb near New Delhi, India image:43504:2::0

An office dispute gone wrong. In one of the worst incidents of industrial violence in recent times, the MD-CEO of the India unit of Italian MNC Graziano Trasmissioni was bludgeoned to death by a 200-strong armed mob of sacked workers. The mob barged into the company premises, wantonly destroyed machinery and cars and then attacked the CEO who was trying to pacify them.

According to Graziano employees, the sacked workers rushed into the premises around 12.20 pm when the gates were opened to let in a car. They smashed each of the 20-odd cars in the compound. Hearing the commotion, CEO Lalit Kishore Chaudhary came to the entrance. He was abused while trying to reason with the mob. In the frenzy they beat him to death with a hammer.

Chaudhary was taken to Greater Noida’s Kailash Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. The violence left at least 50 executives and workers of the unit injured. Of them, 10 executives have been admitted to the ICU.

63 people have been arrested in connection with the tragic event.

The unit, a 100% subsidiary of Graziano Italy, also sustained heavy damage after the violence. It specializes in making gears and transmission systems for vehicles. It was set up in 1998 and started production in 2000.

The roots of the unrest can be traced to three months ago, when the company declared a partial lockout after they had demanded pay rises and allegedly ransacked its offices. Some 300 employees were affected. They had arrived on Monday to negotiate the re-employment terms. But, they were not willing to accept some conditions. And they sat on a protest outside the main gate inspite of a court injunction against these workers coming within 300 meters of the unit. The police did not arrive as a precautionary measure when about 200 of them were at the gates.

Lalit Chaudhary is survived by wife Ratna, a college lecturer at Delhi University and an only son.