Maruti's ex-employee held for killing manager last year

A former Maruti Suzuki employee has been arrested in connection with the murder of a general manager during last year’s brutal violence at the Manesar plant in Gurgaon, police said on Friday.

On July 18, 2012, a violence had broken out at the plant after a suspended worker allegedly slapped a supervisor. Awanish Kumar Dev was burnt to death during the arson, which involved attack on company’s executives and destruction of property, leading to temporary closure of the plant and stoppage of production.

After the incident, the company dismissed some 546 permanent and 1,800 contract workers. Of them, 147 workers, including then union leaders, were jailed and are facing trial.

According to Ravindra Yadav, additional commissioner of police (crime and railways), the arrested accused has been identified as Pradeep Kumar, who hails from Haryana’s Kaithal district. He worked as a welder at the plant for five years.

On Thursday, the crime branch had received an input that Pradeep will come to north-west Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh.“Pradeep was held when he came to meet a friend around 6.30 pm,” Yadav said.

Pradeep told police that he was on B-Shift duty on the fateful day. “The employees of A-Shift assembled at the gate after their duty ended at 3.30 pm. He also joined them, and started shouting slogans against the management to protest against suspension
of Jiya Lal,” Yadav added.

The mob soon became violent and Pradeep along with others damaged the properties and manhandled the management staff. They also set the administrative office on fire. “Awanish was killed in the fire,” Yadav said.

On verification, a case under Indian Penal Code was found registered against Pradeep with Manesar police station. After registration of the case, he went underground to evade arrest. Manesar police station has been informed about Pradeep’s arrest.
Awanish lived with his family at south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. He is survived by his wife Suparna and son Abhyudit. Suparna works as a deputy director with the ministry
of defence.