Maruti HR man beaten, burned alive

The body found at carmaker Maruti Suzuki's Manesar factory after the mob violence on Wednesday was identified as that of senior human resource executive Awanish Kumar Dev, 51. Sanjeev K Ahuja and Leena Dhankhar report. HR manager burnt to death

The body found at carmaker Maruti Suzuki's Manesar factory after the mob violence on Wednesday was identified as that of senior human resource executive Awanish Kumar Dev, 51.

Dev was assaulted with iron rods and left unconscious to be burnt alive, the police said.

The post-mortem on Thursday revealed that and his legs were fractured.

He is survived by his wife Superna Prasad, who works with the defence ministry, and a son who is a class 12 student.

Hospital staff move the covered body of Awanish Kumar Dev, human resources manager at Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar, from a hospital morgue in Gurgaon. Reuters

An eyewitness told HT that workers assaulted Dev when negotiations over the suspension of a worker were taking place in the conference room.

"A mob of workers barged into the conference room where talks were underway and started assaulting the executives. Dev was trapped and assaulted by iron roads and left to be burnt in the room," said labour contractor Rakesh Chaudhary.

Damaged furniture of Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant following a clash between between workers and management. PTI

The condition of an executive who is in the ICU of a private hospital is critical.

More than 50 company executives, including two Japanese nationals, workers and policemen . The police have arrested 99 workers for the violence.

The factory was shut on Thursday though the company claimed there was no damage to the production facility.

"We will shortly announce our decision on the next steps with regard to resuming operations in these facilities," the company said in a statement.

"By any account this is not an industrial relations problem. Rather, it is an orchestrated act of mob violence at a time when operations had been normal over the past many months."

Fearing arrest, most of the workers went underground but a statement from the Maruti Suzuki Workers' Union accused the company for perpetrating violence by calling in hundreds of bouncers on its payroll to attack the workers.

"We have the workers' and the company's welfare in mind and have worked towards it after the resolution of the dispute last year and to blame the current violence on us is unjust," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Japanese embassy issued a statement deploring the violence that led to Dev's death.

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