New Delhi, March 04: A senior manager of an Indian steel factory has been burnt to death in the eastern state of Orissa, allegedly by a group of workers.
RS Roy of Graphite India Limited died on the way to a hospital in Bolangir district on Thursday evening.
Police said the workers stopped the vehicle carrying Mr Roy and set it on fire. The driver and another employee in the vehicle managed to flee.
The factory had recently suspended 25 workers, reports say.
Tension was running high at the factory after rumours that some of these workers would be retrenched soon, the police said.
Mr Roy, 59, who was the deputy general manager of the factory, was about to leave the factory in Bolangir’s Tilagarh town when a group of irate workers surrounded the vehicle, doused petrol on it and set it on fire.
Correspondents say that the security guards at the company gates did not appear to have come to Mr Roy’s rescue through they witnessed the incident.
Mr Roy, who was badly burnt, died on the way to the hospital.
The police has launched a hunt for those responsible for the incident.
“It is possible that the attackers panicked after the incident and fled the town,” Bolangir police chief Ajay Kumar Sarangi told.
The incident happened after nearly 300 workers the company were dismissed after they demanded pay rises.
—Agencies