Convicted Maruti workers to move HC, claim SIT investigation in case not fair
THE MEMBERS SAID THE CONVICTION HAPPENED BECAUSE FACTS WERE NOT PRESENTED BY THE PROSECUTION IN THE RIGHT MANNER.
The Maruti workers and members of other factory unions held a meeting on Thursday and decided to move the Punjab and Haryana high court against the conviction of 31 workers for the violence at the car plant on July 18, 2012.
The members said the conviction happened because facts were not presented by the prosecution in the right manner.
The workers said the investigation done by the special investigation team (SIT) into the incident was also not fair.
Kuldeep Singh Jhangu, general secretary, Maruti Udyog Kamgaar Union, said, “We want a judicial commission to be set up and fresh inquiry to happen as we do not believe the SIT did its job properly. Besides that, we want Maruti to take back all 546 employees that it sacked after the incident in 2012.”
The union members are likely to meet a legal expert in this regard to take up the matter in the high court.
The union members had skipped their day meal and observed silence on March 17, the eve of the sentencing of 31 workers that the district court in Gurgaon found guilty.
Awanish Kumar Dev, general manager (human resources) of Maruti Suzuki, was burned to death and several executives injured in the violence, allegedly triggered by the workers at the car plant.
The police had arrested 148 workers on charges of murder, arson and rioting while 62 others could not be arrested and were declared proclaimed offenders.
The district court awarded a life sentence to 13 people last Saturday. Four convicts were given five years’ imprisonment and most of them have already spent about 4 years in jail as undertrials.
Fourteen accused of rioting have been fined and released.