YANAM: Puducherry's serene enclave of Yanam turned into a battleground on Friday as enraged workers of a private firm, Regency Ceramics , lynched its president K C Chandrashekhar after their union leader died following a lathicharge by police.

Chandrashekhar, who was president (operations) and son-in-law of the company chairman, was attacked with iron rods at his home. He was taken to a private hospital in Kakinada in Andhra, 30km from Yanam, where he died.

Trouble began when police picked up union leader M S Murali Mohan , a Dalit, late on Thursday on a complaint by the factory management. The workers have been agitating for better wages and regularization of staff for the past three months. Murali was released a few hours later.

At 6am on Friday, he went to the factory along with some workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift. The cops deployed there charged at them with lathis, injuring at least 20 workers.

Murali collapsed and died on way to hospital. Hundreds of workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that the guilty be booked for murder.

100 arrests made after violence rocks Yanam

Prohibitory orders were imposed in Puducherry's enclave of Yanam in Andhra Pradesh and police forces called in from Kakinada after angry workers of Regency Ceramics, a private firm, lynched their company president, torched several vehicles and laid siege to a police station. Eight workers were injured in police firing that followed; the condition of two of them is critical. More than 100 protesters have been arrested.

The factory workers, who have been on strike since January 1 demanding a raise and regularization of services of temporary staff, turned violent after their union leader, M S Murali Mohan, died on Friday after a police lathicharge at the factory. The management had reportedly decided to retrench five workers and had even obtained

orders from the Madras high court that the striking workers should not come within 200 metres of the industrial unit.

As news of Murali's death spread , factory workers damaged nearly 50 company cars, buses and trucks and set them on fire. Some private vehicles were also targeted. Residents joined hands with the angry mob of around 600 workers and ransacked the factory. After setting it on fire, they torched an educational institution run by the company, besides burning down a shed.

Two oil tankers were also gutted, while miscreants looted computers, ceramic tiles and other office material. Some of the workers went to company president K C Chandrashekhar's house and beat him up with iron rods. He died later in a hospital. Police said the tense situation in the neighbouring town of Kakinada, following the desecration of B R Ambedkar's statue, added fuel to the violence.

The trade union formed by Murali has been demanding regularization of those who have put in 15 years of service. The workers have been on a relay hunger strike for the past 10 days, demanding reinstatement of sacked workers and revocation of transfer of workers who took part in earlier protests.