Date:23/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/23/stories/2008092357110100.htm

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CEO of Greater Noida firm battered to death

Staff Reporter

Dismissed employees of the Italy-based company turn violent; 63 under arrest

GREATER NOIDA: The Chief Executive Officer of an Italy-based auto components manufacturing company was bludgeoned to death allegedly by a group of dismissed employees inside its manufacturing unit here on Monday.

It all happened around noon when a group of former employees of the company who were dismissed a couple of months ago turned violent during a meeting with the management and allegedly attacked Lalit Kishore Chaudhury, CEO and Managing Director of Graziano Trasmissioni India Pvt. Ltd, at Udyog Vihar with lathis and rods. He was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead.

“The management had invited the dismissed employees for talks to sort out the matter, but an altercation broke out between the employees and the members of the management over some issue. Following this, a security guard opened fire in the air and a mob of over 100 people waiting outside stormed inside the premises of the manufacturing unit. Mr. Chaudhury, who was in his cabin, came down on hearing the commotion and was battered to death,” said Superintendent of Police (Greater Noida) Baburam.

Over two-dozen people were injured in the clash between the agitating former employees and the private security guards of the company.

The company had reportedly dismissed about 200 employees after they vandalised its premises during an agitation two months ago demanding a raise in salary. The dismissed employees were demanding reinstatement and the management had invited them for talks on Monday.

“We have registered a case based on the complaint of the company and 63 people have been arrested so far. Thirteen of those arrested have been named in the FIR,” said Mr. Baburam.

The management reportedly had laid a pre-condition for the dismissed employees, asking them to submit a written apology to get back their jobs.

“This apparently infuriated them,” the police said.

Forty-year-old Mr. Chaudhury, a native of Punjab, was staying in Sector 30 of Noida. He is survived by his wife, Ratna Chaudhury, a senior Physics lecturer at Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College, and a son, who is studying in Modern School on Barakhamba Road.

The cremation will take place on Tuesday.