Report reveals GM burnt alive
The post-mortem examination report of Maruti Suzuki’s general manager in human resources department (GM HR), Awanish Dev, who was killed in violence at the country’s largest car manufacturer’s Manesar plant indicates that he met a gruesome end. The autopsy report says that Dev’s both legs were fractured so he could not move to safety and died in the fire set by agitating workers. Dev had been assaulted with iron rods and left unconscious to be burnt alive. The post-mortem report also says that he suffered 100 per cent burn injury.
In a major twist to the probe into the incident of violence at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant, the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Haryana government has put the management of the country’s largest car manufacturer in the dock. A leading TV channel from India referring to its sources said that initial probe points to the fact that the mayhem could have been prevented had the Maruti management acted on the vital intelligence inputs shared with it. The Maruti management failed its employees as the SIT claims that the company was warned about the brewing trouble and had asked it to ramp up security.
The SIT further claims that intelligence agencies pointed flaws in contract labour system of the company. Maruti was even asked to overhaul its recruitment process to stem unchecked infiltration of outsiders into the company’s workforce. Talking about Maruti’s culpability after the incident, Kumar’s wife had said,”Vigilance and intelligence officials inside the plant could not assess the threat perception. No security was provided to the officials at the facility. It was failure on their part as they should have known that. Such a level of anger was there. We want justice for him. Whosoever has done this to him should be brought to justice.”
Maruti’s weird response to the crisis led to speculation of some kind of murky deal being arrived at over the death of the GM. While his killers were still at large, Maruti has many more questions to answer. Questions have been raised on the Haryana Police’s intention to act against the culprits as well as the Maruti management which seems in a hurry to give a clean chit even as the key suspects have still been at large.
