‘Those convicted suffer inside jail, we suffer outside’

Says Manoj Kumar who walked free after three years in jail, but is still struggling to come to terms with what happened

Manoj Kumar

Manoj Kumar, one of the 117 workers acquitted in the Maruti Suzuki factory violence case, contended that acquittal made little sense to him and his worker friends as they continue to suffer despite being absolved of all charges by the court.

A native of Bawal in Rewari, Mr. Kumar said he still struggled to understand the difference between being acquitted and convicted in the context of his case. “What is the definition of acquittal? What are our rights on being acquitted? Those convicted suffer inside the jail, and we suffer outside. So there is little difference. Will we ever get justice,” asked Mr. Kumar, who spent around three years in jail. He was let off by a Gurugram trial court in March this year.

Mr. Kumar argued that the court and the government should ensure that the workers are reinstated and their rights protected. He said the company was not ready to take them back despite their acquittal and they were now left with no option but to move labour court seeking justice. “But it may take several years. A poor worker may be unable to continue his fight for so long and eventually he may be forced to accept whatever is offered to him in an out-of-court settlement,” said the 31-year-old.

‘Nowhere near the spot’

Mr. Kumar claimed that he was working around 300 metres away from the spot when violence broke out in the company. He said he left immediately, but was targeted for participating in the union workers’ protest. “I was not a part of the violence, but was active during our struggle for union formation in 2011. The company used the incident inside its premises as a pretext to target us. It was a horror for all of us. We are yet to come to terms with what happened to us,” said Mr. Kumar.

Hiding the past

After getting bail in 2015, he worked at a company in Bawal industrial area for around a year without revealing his past association with Maruti.

Major arguments in Maruti case

 

Arrested from his village in Nangal Shahbaz Pur, he claimed that Assistant Sub-Inspector Narender, known to him, sweet-talked him into coming to Gurugram to help in the investigation and later arrested him. He claimed that police records later showed that he was arrested by Sub-Inspector Ramphal. He alleged that the police arrested the workers randomly without any evidence, and that many officers would lose their job if an honest probe was conducted.

Referring to the murder of a seven-year-old in Ryan International School recently, Mr. Kumar said that the Haryana government ordered a CBI probe into the matter giving into the sentiments of the parents, but the demands of the workers for an impartial probe into the violence at the Maruti plant was never accepted. “Instead the government appointed senior advocate K.T.S. Tulsi as special public prosecutor in return for a hefty fee and the court did not grant us bail for three years,” said Mr. Kumar.

Mr. Kumar’s family owns a few acres of land in the village and that took care of their finanicial needs during the time he was in jail, but it was an emotional trauma for them.

“My son was born 15 days after my arrest. I was in jail when I first saw him,” recalled Mr. Kumar.