Kohinoor Steel Friday filed a police complaint against unidentified villagers for allegedly attacking its employees and vandalising its plant in Seraikela-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand, company officials said.

Villagers allegedly attacked company officials Wednesday night since the road leading to the area, which falls under Chandil police station, about 190 km from here, was blocked by about 60 trucks carrying coal to the steel plant.

Company officials claimed the villagers beat up five employees and three security guards, and forced the officials to stop production for nearly three hours.

'We have lodged a first information report (FIR) against unknown villagers. We are unable to understand why our steel plant was targeted,' Vijay Bodra, managing director of Kohinoor Steel, told IANS over telephone from Kolkata.

Lakshman Prasad Singh, superintendent of police of Seraikela-Kharsawan district, said: 'We have started investigation in the incident. Suitable action will take against the culprits.'

This is second time that employees of the Kohinoor Steel plant have been attacked. In July 2007, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) workers vanadalised the plant and forced the company to shut down for a few days.

'We sought security from the state government six months ago and till now no security has been provided to us,' Bodra said.

Kohinoor steel is one the few companies which started production in the state without getting iron ore lease. At present, Kohinoor steel produces 400 tonne of sponge iron and 405 tonne steel everyday. The company has already invested around Rs.2.5 billion in the state and plans to increase the production up to 2,000 tonne steel everyday.

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