Kolar: As many as 160 people have been arrested by the police in connection with the vandalism that occurred the Wistron plant in Kolar.
Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd. had filed a complaint where it claimed that it had suffered losses worth Rs 437.70 crore. Wistron company executive Prashanth TD claimed in the complaint that the vandalism was carried out by 5,000 contract labourers and about 2,000 unknown culprits.
According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Karthik Reddy, 160 people had been arrested in connection with the case so far, and culprits are being nabbed based on CCTV footage and after checking the list of workers who were on duty.
Cases have been registered by the Kolar Police under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with an armed deadly weapon), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 448 (trespass), 395 (dacoity), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc launched an investigation into the reasons that triggered violence at its iPhone maker Wistron Corporation’s plant in Kolar on December 12.
“We have teams on the ground which have launched investigation at Wistron’s facility at Narasapura near Bengaluru. As we are dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with dignity and respect, we are also dispatching additional team members and auditors to the facility,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement here.
Apple’s supplier guidelines mandate third-party staffing agencies to pay workers and provide them with other benefits as per rules and on time.
Apple’s visiting team will examine if there was a disparity in wages agreed and paid to the employees.
It can be recalled that violence broke out at the Taiwanese Wistron Corporation’s plant near Kolar, where iPhones and other IT products are manufactured, as a large number of workers went on a rampage over issues related to the payment of salaries.
(with inputs from IANS)
