A man jumped off the first floor of a building under construction on Sunday night to escape assault by his employer, who suspected him of having stolen a mobile phone, police said.
Pashupati Sardar, a mason, fractured his leg and is being treated in hospital. Based on his complaint, employer Ramesh Naskar, who is developing the building on Christopher Road in southeast Kolkata, has been arrested.
The police said the Lalbazar control room received a call that a man was spotted jumping from the first floor of a building at 36A Christopher Road. Officers of Tiljala police station found a man sitting in a dark spot outside the building, apparently unable to walk.
“He suffered injuries in his left leg. He was taken to the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, where a fracture was detected in his leg,” said an officer.
Sardar was working as a mason at the site, the police said.
He told the police that Naskar and one of his friends named Baban were assaulting him with a wooden log on suspicion that he had stolen a mobile phone.
“To escape the assault, Sardar jumped from the first floor and remained hidden till the developer and his friend left,” said an officer.
“No evidence emerged till Monday evening that Sardar had stolen any mobile phone,” the officer added.
An officer said, if the developer thought that the labourer had stolen a phone, the correct way to retrieve it was to report the matter to the police instead of taking the law into his own hands.
“We have started a case of assault based on the complaint of the labourer. The developer and his friend have been arrested. We did not receive any complaint of theft from the developer against the labourer,” said the officer.