NEW DELHI (AP) -- More than 60 former employees of an Italian manufacturing company in India have been arrested for allegedly beating to death the company's local chief executive officer, police said Tuesday.
Lalit Kishore Choudhary, the 47-year-old head of Graziano Transmissioni India, bled to death Monday after being attacked with iron rods and wooden sticks inside the company factory on the outskirts of New Delhi, said Babu Ram, the local superintendent of police.
Police have charged 63 former workers with murder, Ram said.
The workers had been called in to settle a dispute that had led to the dismissal of more than 100 employees in recent months, Ram told The Associated Press.
The workers attacked Choudhary when he tried to talk to them, Ram said.
Police arrested another 73 workers on charges of disturbing the peace, Ram said.
Company officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Ramesh Jain, a company board director, told the Hindustan Times newspaper that "around 125 dismissed workers armed with iron rods barged into the factory and went on rampage. ... When Lalit tried to pacify them, they assaulted him with rods."
The Confederation of Indian Industry condemned the attack as a "tragic, unwanted and gory act of violence."
"Such instances of industrial violence cannot be a solution to any problem and must not be tolerated," the organization said in a statement.
The factory is in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, considered one of India's most lawless states.