Arguing on behalf of the workers in the Maruti violence case at lower court here, senior advocate Vrinda Grover has argued that as per the records of the prosecution, the 89 accused in the case were arrested by the police even before their names came from the witnesses and strongly urged that “the investigation in the case was committed at the behest of and dictated by the Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.(MSIL)”.
FIR number inconsistent
Appearing pro bono in the case, Ms. Grover said that the FIR had named only 55 workers in the case, but the arrest memos and the documents of the prosecution clearly and conclusively established that 89 workers (not named in the FIR) were arrested by 11 a.m. on July 19, 2012, before the first set of four prosecution witnesses named them in their statements to the police later at noon.
List from Maruti
Alleging that these 89 workers were arrested at the behest of Maruti company, Ms. Grover said that as per the evidence and documents placed on record by the Assistant HR manager of MSIL Nitin Saraswat, a prosecution witness, he went to the company at 3 a.m. on July 19 and brought two lists carrying names of 55 and 89 workers and handed them over to the police around 6 a.m. the same day. “The SHO, a proseuction witness, said he formed an SIT prior to 8 a.m. on July 19 of six police officers. All those officers have stated in court that those 89 accused were arrested before 12 noon on July 19, 2012 on the basis of the lists given to them by the SHO,” said Ms. Grover. It clearly shows that these arrests could only have been made as per the list provided by Nitin Saraswat... to show that a major incident took place where workers of the factory went on rampage, and destroyed property, she added.
She also asked how not a single accused in the case was arrested at the time of the incident despite heavy police presence.
