'Sacked' Maruti workers demand release of colleagues on anniversary of Manesar violence

The sacked Maruti Suzuki workers staged a protest here on Thursday and demanded the release of their colleagues, who were arrested last year for violence and arson at Maruti's plant in Manesar.

On July 18, 2012, Maruti's Manesar plant workers rampaged through the factory assaulting supervisors and setting fire to parts of the plant.

The Human Resource General Manager of the company, Avnish Dev, lost his life in the incident and 85 others were injured.

After the incident, the 540 permanent and 1800 contract workers were fired and 147 were imprisoned with non-bailable charges on them.

The union and workers' groups said that months of discontent over stalled pay negotiations had led up to last year's violence. On the other hand, Maruti's management maintains that they are still unaware of what triggered the violence at the plant.

"It's been a year since our 147 colleagues are in prison in the Bhondsi jail of Gurgaon, 10 in the Kaithal jail and there is a non-bailable warrant against 66 boys," said Rajpal Gowde, a protestor.

He added that the entire incident was a planned conspiracy by the management to break the workers' union and that the charge of the death of Dev was deliberately imposed on the workers.

The Maruti Provisional Committee criticized the government for not providing any solution to their problems.

"Till now, the government hasn't announced any solution to our problems neither have they given us any assurance," said Mahavir Diman, a member of the Maruti Provisional Committee.

The Manesar Plant was shut and the production of Maruti car was stopped after the 2012 incident. Though, it restarted after a month on August 21, 2012.