An Additional Director General of Police-rank officer will oversee the investigation into the recent violence at the Taiwan headquartered Wistron Corporation's iPhone manufacturing facility at Kolar in Karnataka, authorities said on Tuesday. The officer chosen for this role is Pratap Reddy, who is posted as ADGP, Communication, Logistics and Modernisation along with the additional charge of Law and Order.
The Karnataka government took a decision to appoint the senior IPS officer on the direction of state Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who had chaired a meeting on Monday with senior administrative and police officials including Additional Chief Secretary Rajneesh Goel and the Director General of Police Praveen Sood, a state government release said. No definite time limit has been set for concluding the investigation.
Workers at the Wistron's iPhone manufacturing plant at Narsapur in Kolar district, had gone on a rampage on December 12 over alleged delay in payment of salary and overtime wages. Wistron on Saturday said that it had sacked its Vice President overseeing its business in India, as it admitted that some workers were not paid correctly or on time, and offered an apology.
It put preliminary damage estimates in the range of New Taiwan Dollar 100 to 200 million, which is about Rs 52 crore, while earlier reports, quoting the complaint by company officials to the local police station, had put the estimate at about Rs 437 crore.
TNM has earlier reported that Wistron in a regulatory filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange has said this skirmish reported in Kolar will not cause significant impact to the company. The statement had come as the company was disclosing to the exchange that it was placed on probation by Apple.
“Regarding the event at our Narasapura facility in India, the investigation which includes collaboration with related government authorities is ongoing, as well as related insurance claims. The company will work with our customer in terms of correcting issues and operation recovery,” Wistron said.