New Delhi: A highly-guarded district court in Gurugram on Friday convicted 31 plant workers and acquitted 117 others in the Maruti violence case of 2012 which injured over 100 employees and killed a senior officer.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on March 17. Out of 31 convicted, 13 workers have been convicted for murder section 302, 307 of IPC and the other 18 have been convicted for rioting and criminal conspiracy. The counsel for the company has demanded harsh punishment for all the convicts.
Additional District and Sessions Judge of Gurugram District Court delivered the verdict. The court has scheduled the afternoon session to declare the quantum of sentence for the convicted workers.
General Manager Human Resources of the Manesar unit, Awanish Kumar Dev, was charred to death beyond recognition and several other executives were injured in a violent clash between the workers and the management on the plant premises on July 18, 2012.
Immediately after the clash, around 546 workers were laid off and 147 were arrested, out of whom 145 were charged with rioting, murder, attempt to murder, unlawful assembly, assault, and trespass among other sections of the penal code.
The case trial has been going on for the last five years. Senior advocates like RS Cheema, Rebecca John and Vrinda Grover appeared on behalf of the accused employees in the case. The counsels had submitted that the case lacked the support of proper evidence to convict the accused ones.
They had stated that there was no evidence to back the allegation that the workers had unlawfully assembled with a common objective to kill or set the office on fire. They had also argued there were loopholes in the investigation which suggested the accused were being falsely implicated as there was no evidence to back the claim of the prosecution.
During the final arguments, the prosecution had submitted that the court should in no way show mercy to the accused as it led to large scale vandalism in the company and killed a senior official.
Out of the total accused in the case, 138 were out on bail. During a course of arguments, Vrinda Grover had submitted that almost 112 of the accused were not identified by any of the prosecution witness.
The district administration has deployed heavy security at Maruti's Manesar plant ahead of court verdict. Prohibitory orders have been imposed under Section 144 of the CrPC around the plant and the district courts complex.
An official statement issued by the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union hinted at a possible protest if the court verdict was not in their favour.
"We are apprehensive and have grounds to believe that it will be a politically motivated anti-worker judgment. We will stand by those facing conviction or were left jobless after the incident," read an official.
In 2011, Maruti incurred a loss over $500 million worth of production due the continuous weeks of labour unrest. This violence had also created a dent on India's appeal as an investor friendly location.
It is interesting to note that when the violence broke out, almost half of the workers in the Manesar plant were on contract basis earning around Rs 6,000 per month, a one third of what permanent employees were paid for.
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