Two employees of a private television channel were roughed up and their car set ablaze by four unidentified attackers in Lucknow on Tuesday for carrying a news report claiming that Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati possessed unaccounted wealth, channel sources alleged.

The four men, who arrived on motorcycles at Madan Mohan Malviya Marg this afternoon, pulled a cameraman and an assistant out of the car, they said, adding that the employees were roughed up by the attackers who later torched their car. The television staff suffered injuries in the assault. 

Before setting the vehicle on fire, the attackers lashed out at the employees for airing the programme on the BSP chief, sources alleged.

After the channel broadcast the report, a demand for additional security had been made to the authorities, sources said, adding that the district police had been informed of the incident and that a first information report will be lodged soon. BSP chief Mayawati had on Monday sent a legal notice to the television channel for allegedly carrying defamatory news against her in its bulletins.