Company chief killed by Indian workers

The brutal killing of the chief of a multi-national company involved in an industrial dispute has sent shockwaves through India's business community.

Lalit Kishore Chaudhury, chief executive of Graziano Trasmissioni India, an Italian car parts company, was beaten to death at his offices on the outskirts of Delhi, in one of the country's largest industrial zones, on Monday during a violent protest.

A meeting with former employees to resolve a long-running dispute dissolved into a riot in which protesters overpowered security guards and turned on Mr Chaudhury and his staff. More than 20 other people were injured.

The attack at Graziano's Greater Noida plant was sparked by the company's dismissal of 200 workers in a pay dispute and has raised alarm among foreign companies operating in India. Many have already taken measures to give their personnel greater protection, following the wave of bomb attacks in Delhi this month.

The Italian government said yesterday it was "deeply shocked" by the violence that led to Mr Chaudhury's death.

"The incident is all the more worrying as the Italian company Graziano Trasmissioni, after many successful years, had been facing for several months violent forms of protest by self-proclaimed workers' representatives. The situation had been repeatedly brought to the attention of the competent Indian authorities," it said.

The company, a fully-owned subsidiary of Graziano Italy, makes gears and transmission systems for vehicles. Mr Chaudhury had worked at the company for the past decade.

Niccolo Tassoni, commercial counsellor at the Italian embassy in New Delhi, said attackers armed with metal bars and hammers had broken up the plant.

"It's the first time I've heard of this kind of problem for an Italian company in India. It's quite shocking."

The Confederation of Indian Industry described Mr Chaudhury's death as an "unwanted and gory act of violence". It urged workers not to use violence to settle disputes with employers.

"Dialogue is always the way to find a solution. We can't have unruly people taking the law into their own hands," said Jayant Bhuyam, CII deputy director-general. "The invest-ment climate and image takes a beating [from an incident like this]."

Police have made sweeping arrests, charging about 13 people with murder.

Mr Chaudhury's death comes against the background of a high profile stand-off between protesters and Tata, the industrial conglomerate, in Singur in West Bengal.

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