Tea workers burn boss, wife to death in India

The India tea workers surrounded and burnt the deceased house.

Workers at an Indian tea plantation, Wednesday evening, burnt the owner of the factory, Mridul Kumar Bhattacharyya, and his wife, Rita, to death, the BBC has reported.

Hundreds of workers surrounded the deceased’s bungalow at Kunapathar in Assam, before they set fire to be building killing the victims, officials said.

The workers had been having a two-week long dispute with the management of the plantation, who asked some workers to leave their accommodation.

A local security official, Meenakshi Sundaram, told the BBC that some 700 tea garden workers surrounded the manager’s bungalow on Wednesday evening and set it on fire. Two vehicles belonging to the manager were also torched.

The charred bodies of the two victims were later recovered from the debris, Mr. Sundaram said. Police said they have detained three workers in connection with the incident.

There have, in recent years, been several incidents of attacks on tea executives by angry workers in Assam, where half of India’s tea output comes from.