A Gurgaon court today convicted 31 employees of Maruti-Suzuki India Limited, including 13 of murder, in connection with the violence at the automobile giant’s Manesar plant in Haryana in 2012 in which a senior officer had been burnt alive.
Additional District and Sessions Judge R K Goyal acquitted 117 of the 148 employees charge-sheeted in the case for want of evidence.
Violence had erupted at the facility in August 2012 over disciplinary action against an employee during which agitated workers had gone on the rampage, torching a part of the factory, setting senior human resource manager Awanish Kumar Dev on fire, and beating up and bludgeoning with rods 100 others. Those wounded included some foreigners and policemen.
The court convicted 13 persons of the murder of Dev, while others were pronounced guilty of having committed various other offences during the violence.
The massive plant, which rolled out over five lakh cars a year, was shut down for a month following the unrest.
The quantum of punishment to those convicted will be pronounced on March 18, defence counsel Rajendra Pathak said.
A large contingent of police was deployed at the court today as a precautionary measure. The local administration had clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC to prevent any untoward incident.
( Source – PTI )
