Maruti workers extend financial help to kin of jailed ex-colleagues

Gurugram: The Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) on Saturday handed over a total of Rs 71.5 lakh to the families of 13 former company workers who were jailed for the 2012 violence at the company’s Manesar plant.

Leaders and members of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union at Manesar and the company’s Gurugram plant’s Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union on Saturday gathered at a park at the Mini-Secretariat here on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway and handed over Rs 5.5 lakh to each family.

Workers of the Manesar plant contributed Rs 5,000 each for extending financial support to the families of their former colleagues whose financial condition was very poor, union leaders said.

On April 16, 2016, Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union had handed over Rs 50,000 each to 36 affected families.

On July 18, the workers union of Sunbeam Auto Company had handed over Rs 75,000 to each of 13 families.

On March 10, Additional District and Sessions Judge R.P. Goel had held 31 former workers guilty of murder and attempt to murder, among other offences, at the Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) Manesar plant on the evening of July 18, 2012.

On March 18, the court awarded life imprisonment to 13 former workers for violence and rioting.

The court also sentenced four accused to five-year imprisonment and said the sentence already served by the remaining 14 accused was sufficient.

Maruti Suzuki Human Resource Department General Manager Ashwin Kumar Dev was burnt alive and over 50 persons injured in the violence. Several policemen also received injuries in the violence.

IANS