On Tuesday, the Managing Director of Muthoot, George Alexander was attacked with stones by a group of unrecognized people in Kochi city, in southern Kerela – where the headquarters of the company is located.
According to media reports, the stone-pelting group of people allegedly belonged to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), trade union wing of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The attack left Alexander injured on his head and shoulder and had to be rushed to a hospital. Details on Alexander’s current situation remain undisclosed as of now.
In a statement given to the media, a CITU spokesperson denied all allegations about involvement of its members on the attack on Alexander while claiming that it did not want “Muthoot to pull down its shutters.”
“We don’t believe in such type of violent mode of agitation,” Hindustan Times quoted Ananthalavattom Anandan of the CITU as saying.
Earlier in September, Alexander revealed that Muthoot was considering shutting down nearly 300 branches in Kerela after the company’s business dropped down to four percent from ten percent.
At the time, he had disclosed that frequent strikes by workers for no clear reasons had begun affecting the company’s functioning.
The Muthoot group that operates in India, US, UK, Sri Lanka, Nepal and UAE manages assets worth over $4.5 billion.
India-based Muthoot Finance – which is considered to be the largest gold financing company in the world - dismissed 160 staff members from its more than 600 branches that are spread across the country in December last year.