After nearly five years of legal battle, 31 people were convicted Friday in Maruti Suzuki Manesar factory violence case and 117 were acquitted by Haryana court. They had been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, arson and rioting. The Gurgaon district was reportedly put on alert before the verdict. While nine of the accused workers are still behind bars, 139 are out on bail.

Additional District and Sessions Judge R.P. Goel was expected to decide later on the quantum of punishment to the guilty — put in two categories as per the charges proved against them.

The incident of violence, which took place on July 18, 2012, began with an argument between workers and management. The matter soon got out of hand and the workers allegedly set fire to one of the floors. HR General Manager Awanish Kumar Dev was killed in the incident and several other executives were injured.

The Maruti Suzuki plant suffered damage and the police later booked 147 workers in connection with the case. The factory workers allegedly set fire to the plant after getting into an argument with the management. They were later charged with conspiracy to commit murder, arson and rioting.

Booked by the police and sacked by the carmaker after the violence on July 18, 2012, none of the 148 jailed workers could secure bail for long. It was only on February 23, 2015, that the Supreme Court granted bail to two of the 148 accused.

Following the incident, the management of the plant terminated the services of 550 permanent and over 1,800 contract workers causing widespread outrage.