Concluding his arguments in the Maruti violence case at a lower court here on Tuesday, senior advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, R.S Cheema, said that the prosecution had failed to prove that any inflammatory agent was used in the fire at the company’s Manesar premises, and also none of the victims had any burns.
Mr. Cheema, who represents 18 workers in the case, He added that the management executives too had not suffered any burn injuries and there were no marks of smoke on their clothes.
Mr. Cheemaalso argued that the charge of destruction of evidence could not be made as mere setting off the security room on fire could not attract the charge until an intention to do so was proved. As for injuries to the management executives, Mr. Cheema said that none of them stayed in the hospital for more than four days.
‘Frivolous injuries’
Highlighting the nature of “frivolous injuries” in some cases, Mr. Cheema said that the Medico Legal Certificate of one of the prosecution witnesses even recorded that the executive got his root canal treatment done during his stay in hospital.
He told the court how the injured executives were taken to select private hospitals on the panel of the company and the police visited the company's Japanese hostel to record their statements.
Mr. Cheema said the company was the “investigator” and the “prosecutor” in the case, as the 89 accused were arrested based on the list provided by company officials even before they were named by the prosecution witnesses.
Though the 18 accused workers represented by Mr. Cheema are identified by the witnesses, the senior advocate cited law cases before the Additional District and Sessions Judge R. P. Goyal to argue that in case of charges of unlawful assembly, each accused should be identified by at least two to three witnesses.
The defence counsels have now completed their final arguments in the case. Besides Mr. Cheema, senior advocates Rebecca John and Vrinda Grover have also appeared on behalf of the accused workers in the case. All three advocates appeared pro bono in the case.
