RP Goyal, the additional district and sessions judge in Gurgaon (Gurugram) on March 18 handed out life sentences to 13 accused in the murder of Awanish Kumar Dev, general manager (human resources) of Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar, Gurugram.

Apart from the 13, four more have been handed out five-year imprisonments, with 14 others accused in the rioting, injuring officials and murder in the plant were to be fined and released. The accused have already served four years in detention, so they have one year left.

The incident, which took place in 2012, had its final hearings at court on March 17, with the verdict reserved for March 18. Defence lawyers immediately said they are going to appeal the decision in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The prosecution wanted capital punishment, treating this as the rarest of rare cases, which can draw capital punishment. District attorney Lal Singh had reportedly argued: “The victim Awanish Kumar Dev was beaten brutally and he could not escape from fire because of the injuries inflicted by the accused.”

Those sentenced to life imprisonment are: Ram Mehar, Sandeep Dhillon, Ramvilas, Sarabjit Singh, Pavan Kumar, Sohan Kumar, Pradip Kumar, Ajmer Singh, Jia Lal, Amarjeet Kapoor, Dhanraj Bhambi, Yogesh Kumar and Pradeep Gujjar.

In August 2012, when disciplinary action was taken against a worker at a facility of the plant, workers got agitated and had gone on the rampage. They torched a part of the factory in which the manager, Awanish Kumar Dev, was present at the time.

It was said that the brutality of the workers were to such an extent that they had broken the legs of the manager so he could not get out of the plant and died of 100 degree burns.

The workers had not stopped at that. They beat up at least 100 others, bludgeoning them with rods. The wounded even included some foreigners and policemen.

—By India Legal Bureau