Man hires thugs to beat up ex-supervisor

Police have arrested a man for hiring three thugs to beat his former supervisor with steel pipes outside his home in Pudong New Area in May, police said Monday.

The suspect, surnamed Qian, hired the men after his former employer declined to renew his employment contract in April, according to a press release from the Pudong New Area Public Security Bureau.

Although Qian found a job soon after the contract expired, he nursed a grudge because his supervisor, surnamed Li, didn't tip him off that he was going to lose his job, police said.

When Qian told the story to a man surnamed Yuan, they came up with the idea of teaching Li a lesson, police said. Qian agreed to pay Yuan 30,000 yuan ($4,889) to rough Li up.

Yuan later found two other men to help him. When Li showed up at the gate to his residential compound, the three men attacked him with steel pipes, police said. Li suffered injuries to his head and feet.

Li later called the police, who tracked down the four men involved in the attack. Qian, Yuan and the two others remained in criminal detention Monday on assault charges.