13 Maruti Employees Get Life Imprisonment Over 2012 Manesar Violence

The prosecution counsel Anurag Hooda sought death penalty for the 13 ex-employees, but the Sessions Judge R P Goyal awarded them a life sentence. They were found guilty of murder.

A labour unrest at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant in 2012 ended in the death of Awanish Kumar Dev, General Manager, Human Resources, who was set on fire and charred to death.

A total of 95 managers, supervisors and nine police officers were injured in the violence. 145 employees were arrested and charged with assault and rioting, attempt to murder and possession of weapons.

Out of these 11 are in jail and rest of them were released on bail. 18 ex-employees were convicted out of which four were given a sentence of 5 years, and 14 others were released after paying an amount of Rs 2,500 as a penalty.

The 13 ex-employees who have been given life imprisonment have been identified as Ram Mehar - Union President, Sandeep Dhillon, Ram Bilas, Sarabjeet Singh, Pawan Kumar, Sohan Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Ajmer Singh, Jiya Lal, Amarjeet, Dhanraj Bhambi, Yogesh Kumar and Pradeep Gujjar.

Opposing this verdict, the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union has called for a protest on March 23, 2017, called as ‘Chalo Manesar' and a one-hour tool-down in all the six plants of Maruti Suzuki.