CHENNAI: Failure to pay wages to the employees of a car ancillary manufacturing unit on time cost a factory's supervisor his life in Sriperumbdur on Friday.

Police said Mohan, 45, of Shollinganallur was a supervisor of a factory manufacturing motor spare parts. The employees of the factory were mostly form the northern part of India and were living in settlements in and around Kancheepuram.

On Friday night he went to Vallam village where most of the factory workers stay and demanded to know why they were not reporting for work. The employees asked him for their pending wages. A verbal altercation ensued and the workers started to push Mohan around.

In the mêlée, one of the employees, Sanjay Kumar, stabbed Mohan with a knife after he allegedly abused his sister.

Mohan died on the spot, a police officer said. Police sent the body to Kancheepuram General Hospital for postmortem.

The employees told police that they had been upset with Mohan who, they said, was high-handed with them and sided with the management.

The workers were also upset about pending wages.

Police are investigating the cause of delay in disbursing salaries and checking if there were earlier altercations between the employees and Mohan.

Police arrested Sanjay Kumar, who has been remanded in judicial custody.