Two Maruti Suzuki workers granted bail after 31 months

Gurgaon, Feb 23 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday granted bail to two of the 148 jailed Maruti Suzuki workers in jail following the July 18, 2012 violence at the company's Manesar plant in Haryana which left a senior executive dead and dozens injured.

The workers were in jail on charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, a lawyer said.

Sunil Kumar and Kanwarjeet Singh, residents of Jhajjar and Hisar districts, respectively, were granted regular bail by the bench of Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit.

Kumar was a casual worker while Singh was doing his apprenticeship. Both worked for Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) for nearly seven months before they were arrested for violence.

The workers had approached the apex court in January this year after a district and the Punjab and Haryana High court denied them bail.

"The prosecution failed to produce even a single witness against the duo. After completion of prosecution examination and finding no evidence against accused, they were granted bail," Vrinda Grover, one of the defense counsel told IANS.

Earlier, booked by police and sacked by the company, the slow pace of the case in various courts had led to a situation where none of the 148 jailed workers were even allowed bail.

The violence in the Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant near Gurgaon, left the company's HR head (general manager) Ashwin Kumar Dev dead and over 50 people injured.

Violence started after a company supervisor allegedly abused and slapped a worker. Services of nearly 2,500 workers, including 546 permanent employees, were terminated after the incident.

Maruti declared a lockout for over a month, causing a loss of several crores of rupees.

The case is under trial in the court of Gurgaon Additional District and Sessions Judge S.K. Khanduja. The next hearing of the case will be held March 3.

"Nearly hundred testimonies of company officials, four contractors of the company, doctors, officials from the labour department and investigating police officers have been completed. Maruti officials failed to identify 25 jailed workers," union leader Ramniwas told IANS.

"Those in jail have lost family members during this period but they have not been granted bail even on these occasions," a member of one of the affected families said.