An Indian man who paid £14,000 for a solid gold shirt, earning him the nickname ‘gold man’, has allegedly been beaten to death.

Money-lender Datta Phuge, 48, from western Pune, was reportedly set upon by 12 people on Thursday night, who hit him with a sickle and stones.

Mr Phuge’s 22-year-old son witnessed the attack but was not harmed, according to the police, who are questioning four people in connection with it.

Money-lender Datta Phuge, 48, from western Pune, was reportedly set upon by 12 people on Thursday night, who hit him with a sickle and stones

The alleged killers had invited the pair to a birthday party in Dighi area the police said, according to the BBC.

The murder being the result of a dispute over money is one line of enquiry that the police are pursuing.

Dighi police station inspector Navnath Ghogare told the Press Trust of India news agency ‘we are investigating how Mr Phuge reached the open ground where he was murdered’, the BBC reported.

Mr Phuge, a member of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, shot to fame in 2013 after commissioning the gold shirt, which took a team of 15 goldsmiths two weeks to make working 16 hours a day.

Mr Phuge, a member of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, shot to fame in 2013 after commissioning a gold shirt, which took a team of 15 goldsmiths two weeks to make working 16 hours a day

Mr Phuge said he had the shirt made to attract women, claiming that 'no woman could fail to be dazzled by it'

He explained that he bought it to attract women.

'I know I am not the best looking man in the world but surely no woman could fail to be dazzled by this shirt?' he said at the time.

'The gold shirt has been one of my dreams,' Mr Phuge told Indian newspaper the Pune Mirror. 'It will be an embellishment. It will be an embellishment to my reputation as the “Gold man of Pimpri”.’