MANESAR: Awanish Kumar Dev, 49, general manager (HR), who died in the Wednesday evening clash between workers and the management at Maruti’s Manesar plant, was described by a Maruti official on Thursday as an outstanding professional who was compassionate and committed to cordial industrial relations.

An MBA from Xavier’s Institute of Social Service, Dev had been working with Maruti for the past nine years. His wife, Saparna Dev, is a deputy director with the Union defence ministry and they have a 10-year-old son, Abhiyudeep. Dev was the eldest of two brothers and four sisters. His younger brother runs a medical store in Ranchi while his father is a practising homeopath.

His family members flew to Delhi from Ranchi on Thursday to bring his body back home. Among those who have gone to bring back his body are his father, Rameshwar Sah, his mother, two brothers-in-law and a nephew. “Awanish’s parents left for Delhi in the afternoon after getting the sad news,” said Ashok Barua, their neighbour in AG Colony, Doranda.

The postmortem report has revealed that he died a gruesome death. According to the report, Dev had died of suffocation and burns which were 100% up to the bones. The tissues were all charred. There were multiple fractures on both his legs, which sources said, was brought on by agitators who broke his legs with an iron rod.

Dr Deepak Mathur, forensic expert at Civil Hospital, said, “It seems that he was severely beaten before death. The body continued to burn even after death.”
Dr Mathur added that even though it was almost confirmed that the deceased was Dev, his DNA samples have been preserved for identification purposes. The DNA samples of his father or son would be taken in a couple of days and send to the forensic lab for confirmation. Dev was reportedly recognized by one his relatives by his golden tooth.

The body was handed over to the family on Thursday.

A Maruti official said in a statement, “Awanish was an outstanding professional and team member, compassionate, soft-spoken and deeply committed to cordial industrial relations. In the past year, he had been instrumental in the company taking far-reaching steps to enhance the wellbeing and working conditions of workers at the Manesar Plant”.

“We are deeply disturbed by the mob violence and arson at our Manesar Plant on Wednesday evening. Several executives, managers and supervisors were brutally attacked and injured, and nearly 100 of them had to be hospitalized,” added the official.