Factory tools and car parts used to attack officials and destroy property lay strewn across the burnt and damaged factory of Maruti Suzuki?s Manesar plant building top-selling models Swift and Dzire, a day after 3,000 workers at India?s largest carmaker rioted, killing an official and wounding 100. Policemen moved in and out of the closed factory even as the injured officials received treatment at nearby hospitals.

The police have formed a special investigative team under assistant commissioner Ravinder Tomar and arrested around 90 people. Around 1,200 policemen have taken control of the factory premises.

The tragic highlight of the day was when the charred body was identified to be the plant’s HR manager Awanish Kumar Dev.

Senior officials and ministers blamed the violence solely on workers. Industry minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said: ?Workers have been arrested under various charges including murder, attempt to murder and destruction of property.? Chief secretary PK Chaudhery said no guilty person would be spared, adding it was not a labour-related issue but one concerning disciplinary action. Haryana director general of police Ranjiv Singh Dalal, who visited the site said: ?No justification can be given for this kind of violence. We will soon arrest everyone behind this.?

Unlike the last time Maruti workers struck work, there’s no sympathy for workers among the police and the local population this time. ?Maruti pays the highest wages in the region; so, there?s no reason for such acts,? said a constable at the site.

A worker at the company’s Gurgaon plant, which is much older than the Manesar one, said trouble erupts at the latter because the average age of workers there is around 25 while at Gurgaon, it is around 35 years. Further, many Gurgaon workers having spent longer years with the company have received training in Japan and are more attuned to the company’s work culture.

Labour trouble is nothing new for Maruti in Manesar. Last year, the plant had remained shut for 33 days. However, Wednesday evening’s events showed no sign of an industrial unrest over wages or service.

The workers’ union defended itself in a statement. It said a supervisor had passed a casteist remark on a permanent worker and when he protested, he was suspended. The workers protested and urged the HR to resolve the matter amicably but the management was in no mood and called the company’s bouncers who beat them up and destroyed the company’s property in the process.

In contrast, a Maruti statement said a worker slapped a supervisor on the shop floor and his colleagues prevented the management from taking disciplinary action. When the officials were trying to resolve the matter through talks, workers attacked them. ?Look at the way the operation was conducted. Side-door beams have been used to attack managers. No one was spared. The building has been damaged and parts of it set on fire. This is riot, not a sign of protest over disagreement over wages or any other issue,? said an official.

The continued presence of 1,500 workers inside factory premises even after their shift ended as 1,500 more for the following shift entered also seemed to point to a planned attack.

According to a company official being treated at the Artemis Hospital in Gurgaon, the entire management was caught unawares. The official told FE the entire management on the first floor of the L-shaped mezzanine had no clue of what was transpired between the HR officials and union members. ?It was around 6.30 in the evening and suddenly a large mob of workers barged into the office carrying rods and door beams of cars. We ducked under our work stations for cover and just tried to save ourselves by covering our heads with our bare arms,? the official said. The experience was similar for officials in the supply chain, welding and the HR departments, who were on the mezzanine floor of the building.

The labour trouble revisits the plant at a time when Maruti is trying to make up for the loss in production due to last year’s long strike. The plant has the capacity to roll out around 55,000 vehicles a year. The models made at Manesar ? Swift and Dzire ? contribute the most to Maruti’s volumes and there’s a long waiting list for these cars.