The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration and the police on Monday booked 10 persons under the Gangster Act of Uttar Pradesh, including one who was booked under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, for disturbing peace and protect Chinese investment in the Noida-Greater Noida region.

Of the 10 suspects, five are in custody for shooting at a security guard of a factory of Oppo, a Chinese mobile phone company in Ecotech 7 on January 31. The guard was critically injured and continues to be under treatment, officials informed.

Officials said the suspects are local goons who had threatened employees of various multinational companies at gunpoint to get contracts for services such as scrap dealing, catering, transport and others

The suspects are allegedly associated with the Sunder Bhati gang and further ties are being investigated, the police said. Robin, 22, a resident of Ghitora village has been booked under NSA and the Gangster Act.

All other nine suspects have been booked under the Gangster’s Act. They are Sachin, Arun alias Gulzar, Arun, Azad alias Ajju, Mohit, Satpal, Vire alias Virendra, Sunil and Rohit.

Five of them — Sachin, Arun Singh, Arun Kumar, Azad and Robin— were also booked under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with a deadly weapon) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Arms Act.

“We have invoked the NSA in the interest of foreign relations and investment in the region. It takes much effort to establish good relations with other countries and we will not let such goons jeopardize the investment climate and cause a threat to the security of other nationals,” B N Singh, district magistrate, said.

Singh said the NSA and Gangster Act would be in place for three months and can be extended further by the state.

The move comes after employees from Oppo mobile company complained that local goons were threatening their employees and causing trouble around their mobile phone unit in Kasna, Greater Noida, raising security issues especially for its Chinese employees.

The company has invested about Rs 2,500 crore in Gautam Budh Nagar.

The company’s executives had approached the police and administration complaining that management and employees were threatened and intimidated regularly by local goons.

They had also said there was an atmosphere of terror and fear amongst all employees, particularly among Chinese employees, which was adversely affecting the working of the factory.

The executives had further informed the police and administration that the company managers were receiving threatening calls regularly, adding to the fear and adversely impacting their performance and, therefore, development of the industry and the area.

Officials said threatening employees to get service contracts and extorting money had been the means of earning a living for the suspects.

Officials added the suspects were so intimidating and threatened so aggressively that no individual would be willing to file a formal complaint with the police.

“There are serious issues of safety and security concerns and stringent action was required. NSA against the prime accused would ensure that he doesn’t get bail easily. We are also ensuring overall security in places where we have come to know about local goons operating,” Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, said.

The district administration has toughened its stance over industrial crime and violence as the areas have seen much disturbance over the past few years after locals would threaten, intimidate and even kill multinational firm employees.

Foreign investment in the region had greatly reduced after the infamous murder of managing director-cum-chief executive officer(ceo)of an Italian multinational company – Graziano Trasmissioni – in Greater Noida in 2008. Lalit Kishore Chaudhary, who was 44 then, was bludgeoned to death by 200 union workers after they were sacked from the company.

The workers on September 22, 2008, had barged into the company premises and broken number of cars. When Chaudhary came out of his office to pacify them, he was hit with hammers and sticks. Four suspects were later awarded life imprisonment.

Last year Noida saw a spate of high investment in the region after Samsung invested Rs 5,000 crore to expand its mobile manufacturing unit in Noida and Vivo Mobile invested Rs 3,500 crore to set up a 170-acre manufacturing unit in Yamuna Authority region.

The Vivo’s project is projected to create more than 25,000 jobs with 30% jobs reserved for local farmer families in Greater Noida. Noida is fast emerging as a hub of mobile phone manufacturers with close to 30 per cent of 70 makers have opened factories here in the past two years.

Last month home appliances brand Haier set up its second industrial park at Greater Noida with an investment of Rs 3,069 crore. The plant will have a capacity to produce two million units of refrigerators, one million units of LED TVS, one million units of washing machines and air conditioners in a year when fully operational.

First Published: Apr 02, 2019 16:22 IST