Maruti Suzuki violence 2012: Court sentences 13 for lifer

New Delhi : Thirteen former workers of the country’s biggest car maker, Maruti Suzuki, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for violence at the company’s Manesar plant in July 2012 that claimed the life of a company executive and left several injured.

 Four other former workers have been sentenced to a five-year jail term by a sessions court in Gurgaon.

The prosecution had sought capital punishment for the accused.

The court had convicted 31 former workers of Maruti Suzuki on March 10, while acquitting 117 others due to lack of evidence.  

Of the 31 convicted, the sentence served by 14 undertrials was found to be sufficient by the court and no punishment was pronounced for them. They will be released with a fine. Lawyers defending these workers said they would challenge the order in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana.

 The sentence was delivered in the presence of hundreds of policemen deployed in riot gear in court. Security arrangements have also been beefed up at offices and plants of Maruti Suzuki.

 

In the worst outbreak of labour unrest at Maruti Suzuki, violence erupted at its Manesar plant over disciplinary action against an employee in July 2012. Agitated workers had torched a part of the factory, setting senior human resource manager Awanish Kumar Dev on fire.