English
Gurugram, March 18 (IANS) A Haryana court on Saturday awarded life imprisonment to 13 former workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) in connection with the 2012 Maruti factory rioting and violence case.
The court also sentenced four other accused to five-year imprisonment, while for the remaining 14 accused, it said that the sentence already served by them was sufficient.
On March 10, Additional District and Sessions Judge R.P. Goel held 31 former workers guilty of murder and attempt to murder, among other offences, at MSIL’s Manesar plant on July 18, 2012 evening.
Maruti Suzuki Human Resource Department General Manager Ashwin Kumar Dev was burnt alive and over 50 persons were injured in the violence. Several policemen had also received injuries.
On Friday, prosecution and defence lawyers put forth their arguments on the quantum of punishment.
While the prosecution lawyers demanded death for the 13 workers held guilty for murder and attempt to murder, the defence argued that it would be injustice to the convicts since the death of a senior executive in the violence was an accident and not planned murder.
Having heard both sides, the court had fixed Saturday to pronounce the quantum of punishment for the 31 convicts.
The guilty were put in three categories of 13, 14 and four workers, depending on the charges proved against them.
This is published unedited from the IANS feed.
