Awanish Kumar Dev

Gurgaon/Ranchi, July 19: The charred body found at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant after yesterday’s clash between workers and supervisors was today identified as that of general manager (human resources) Awanish Kumar Dev of Ranchi.

Dev, aged 49, was “burnt to death by the mob”, a company release alleged. A Maruti official who didn’t wish to be quoted said Dev was an asthma patient and “became unconscious after inhaling smoke”.

The company release stated: “He (Dev) was an outstanding professional and team member, compassionate, soft-spoken and deeply committed to cordial industrial relations.”

At Old AG Colony, Kadru, under Argora police station area, next-door neighbour Sanjay Kumar Dubey said almost the same things.

“Dev bhaiya studied management from XISS and passed out in 1985. He had been staying in New Delhi for the past 12 years. He had been with Maruti for the past nine years,” he told The Telegraph.

He added that his two brothers-in-law who reside in Ranchi left for New Delhi by the morning train after Dev’s identity was confirmed. His parents and younger brother left for the national capital by an afternoon flight.

Dubey added that Dev’s wife Suparna is a deputy director in the Union ministry of defence in New Delhi. The couple has a son, Abhyudit (10).

The Maruti plant unrest destroyed a normal, educated and upwardly mobile family.

“The family is well liked. Dev’s octogenarian father, Rameshwar Sah, still practises homoeopathy. His younger brother Abinash Kumar runs a homeopathic medicine store, Dev Homeo Hall, at Kadru. They have four sisters, all married. Two stay in Ranchi and two others in Singapore and Gujarat,” said Dubey.

The double-storey residence of the Dev family, 171, AG Colony, Kadru, was found closed this evening though light was seen coming out of the top-floor window.

Yesterday, the clash began at the plant around 6.15pm after talks between union leaders and management failed over the reinstatement of a Dalit worker, suspended after he attacked a supervisor over an alleged casteist slur around 11.30am.

The workers were accused of setting fire inside the plant, including the HR office. When the blaze was doused, Dev’s charred body was found.

Around 1,500 policemen secured the plant, where production has been stopped indefinitely. Ninety-one workers were arrested this morning.