The Haryana Police on Sunday said it had arrested six more workers in relation with the attack on company executives at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory on Wednesday that had resulted in the killing of a senior manager and injuries, many severe, to 100 others.
A senior police officer said, “So far, 97 workers have been arrested. Investigations are on. We are trying to trace the other members of the workers’ union.”
The latest arrests were from different locations. One was arrested yesterday and produced before a magistrate who sent him to 14 days’ judicial custody today. The other five would be produced in court tomorrow. Another 91 workers arrested earlier are lodged in Bhondsi Jail, after a court remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.
The Haryana Police has formed a six-member Special Investigation Team, led by Assistant Commissioner Ravinder Tomar, to probe the riot.
The company said it would continue to dispatch cars from the stockyard of the Manesar unit, though operations would remain suspended at the facility. The stockyard at Manesar has an inventory of 26,000 vehicles and is also used for delivering cars produced at the nearby Gurgaon facility to dealers across the country. The company had declared an indefinite lock-out at the Manesar facility yesterday.
R C Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), had said, “There is now a lockout. To me, safety of my colleagues is more important than producing some cars to make some money. Operations will not resume at the unit till investigation into the incident is completed and corrective measures put in place to prevent any recurrence.”
MSIL employs 1,545 permanent workers and an equal number of contract workers at the Manesar unit. With the company not specifying a timeline on when the operations might resume at Manesar, uncertainty now looms over the fate of these 3,000-odd workers.
Personnel changes
The company has clarified that the lockout did not mean it was looking at shifting its unit to an alternative site. It has, however, said the company would not employ contract or casual labour from March next year in production-related operations. Contract workers would be hired for “non-valued added” work such as cleaning, security, canteen services, loading and unloading. And, their hiring would be done directly by its human resources division, instead of outsourcing it to a contractor as was the case earlier.
The Manesar unit used to make 1,600 vehicles a day on an average and accounted for 45 per cent of MSIL’s overall production. The facility rolls out some of the company’s best-selling models, such as the Swift premium hatchback Swift and Swift Dzire sedan.
Besides the police investigations, MSIL has resolved to conduct an internal enquiry to gauge the factors that resulted in the eruption of violence. The company would take back innocent workers but those named and identified in connection with the standoff would stand dismissed.
