Pune, Feb 13 (IANS): In a shocking incident, a 26-year old man was on Thursday beaten to death by at least 12 persons, including six women, following a huge brawl over a seat in the speeding Mumbai-Latur-Bidar Express, police said here.

The incident occurred early on Thursday when Kalyan resident Sagar Markand and his wife Jyoti, along with their two-year old daughter, boarded the train at Kalyan late on Wednesday night.

The general compartment was full with no seats, but later Markand requested some women to adjust so his wife carrying their toddler in the arm could sit, said Superintendent of Police, Railways, Deepak Satore.

Apparently enraged at this, the women started abusing him, leading to a huge spat and then at least a dozen others started raining blows, kicking and punching Markand.

Despite Jyoti's pleas to them to stop, they continued bashing him up for almost an hour until the train finally reached from Pune to the next halt at Daund.

At Daund station, the Government Railway Police rushed the victim to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries sometime later.

Ironically, the Markand family was en route to Kurduvadi in Solapur district to attend a relative's funeral.

"We have detained at least six women and three-four men and their interrogation is being done before arresting them," Satore said.