Seven of the dozen masons, who were assaulted by a gang of unidentified masked men at the under-construction convention centre-cum-food plaza in Kadma around a fortnight ago, went back home to Rajasthan on Sunday.

The construction agency, which had engaged the Rajasthani masons to fix marbles and tiles at Rs 10-crore building, will now have to look for local masons to get the project completed.

“While three of the masons had got their hands fractured in the attack, one of them had sustained multiple injuries in the backbone. They had all stopped working at the site. After the man with the injured backbone was released from MGM Medical College & Hospital, they all left the city,” Singh told The Telegraph.

Singh said the masons were very skilled in fixing tiles and marbles on walls and floors.

“Now we are finding it hard to get masons who have the same expertise,” he said.

Around 20 masked men had barged into the under-construction building and attacked the masons with sticks and iron rods on the night of December 12.

To escape the blows, some of the masons had jumped from the first floor of the building.

Though over 15 days have passed since the incident, police have not yet been able to identify the assaulters.

Senior superintendent of police Anoop Birtharay said they had scanned the footage from the CCTV camera installed near the building, but couldn’t get a clue. “Investigation is still on,” he added.