Indian Tea Plantation Boss Burnt To Death

Hundreds of disgruntled workers on a tea plantation in India have surrounded the owner's home before setting it on fire, killing him and his wife.

The bodies of Mridul Kumar Bhattacharyya and his wife, Rita, were found by police at a tea estate in the Tinsukhia district of Assam on Wednesday.

Their deaths come two weeks after some of the plantation's workforce were reportedly suspended.

Around 700 workers armed with bows and poison-tipped arrows surrounded Mr Bhattacharyya's house, trapping him and his wife inside. The building burned down by the time police arrived.

Speaking to local television channel News Live, one female worker, who was not named, said: "They deserved to be killed as the planter has exploited us for a long time and tortured us for petty things."

Police Superintendent P.P. Singh said officers are investigating, although no arrests have been made.

The plantation is about 310 miles (500km) northeast of Assam's capital, Gauhati.

More than half of India's tea production comes from the region's 800 tea estates.

Plantations, also known as gardens, employ thousands of women to pick the leaves from tea bushes.