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Lockout in tea garden after killing of top executive

Lockout was declared on Tuesday in three of the four divisions of Birla-owned Jayshree group of tea gardens here following the brutal killing of a top executive of one of the gardens by labourers.

Three divisions of the tea gardens in Sibsagar were closed down following yesterday's incident, M D Jain, senior president of Jayshree Tea and Industries, a B K Birla Group company, said in Calcutta.

The group manager of the company, Harpreet Singh Mann, was stoned to death by angry workers who were protesting against the alleged assault of a labourer by Mann and other officials of the garden, police said.

Police said they picked up six persons, four security men of the garden and two labourers for interrogation.

Mann, posted at the garden about six months ago, was lynched by the workers when he allegedly fired on them from his .32 revolver.

The labourers had gone to protest against the confinement of one of their colleagues the day before, ASP Bijoy Puligram said.

Eight persons, including the garden manager were injured in the violence in the garden.

While confirming that Mann had a licensed revolver, Jain said according to reports reaching here, Mann had fired in the air to scare away the labourers and there was no record of tension between the executive and the workers.

Initial inquiry by the police at the garden revealed that tension was building between the labourers and the executive for quite some time.

The labourers were unhappy with Mann for curtailing their amenities, the ASP said.

The trouble started when the labourers, aggrieved over the confinement of one of their colleagues on Sunday by Mann for felling a tree for firewood, launched a protest.

On Monday morning the labourers armed with staves and bricks went to the garden manager's office and beat him up, police said.

When Mann came to manager's rescue and allegedly opened fire on the workers injuring a woman, he was attacked and lynched to death, police said.

Three others were injured in the melee, the police said adding they were informed of the incident much later.

This is the second incident of its kind in Sibsagar district as six months ago a garden manager was hacked to death by workers over a land dispute.

Earlier reports had stated that Mann was a Tata Tea employee.

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