Distressed, labourer jumps off crane, then hangs on for his dear life!

The youth during the two-hour-long drama after his arrest. Pics/Nimesh Dave

The mood across the city was celebratory yesterday, but a whole different nail-biting drama was unfolding at a 14-storey under-construction building on Sahar Road. Though the site was closed for the festival, a labourer (name withheld) from Jharkhand working there had managed to find his way to the top, almost undetected, to jump off.

Reason: he was upset after being accused by his colleague of stealing the latter's money. For nearly two hours, he kept onlookers, authorities and other labourers on tenterhooks. But at last, there was a collective sigh of relief after some immediate counselling by a fire officer and site contractors managed to get him to climb down.

The trigger
It all started around 3.30 pm, when a few people from the construction site spotted the youth on the edge of the crane, set on the 14th floor. "Because the site was closed, nobody noticed him going up," said a labourer. A contractor said, "There was an argument among the labourers after one of them found out that his money had been stolen. This youth was accused, which made him angry, and he ran to the top floor to jump. "There is no clarity yet on the theft. All we know is that the accusation pained him. We will now talk to him to understand the issue."

The youth during the two-hour-long drama after his arrest

With bated breath
The youth stayed on the crane for nearly 45 minutes. All who had gathered underneath had a heart-in-mouth moment when he jumped but caught the crane at the last minute and held on for a while. Five minutes later, he pulled himself back up and started walking back to the floor to come down, signalling an end to the drama.

Mukund Pawar, senior inspector at Andheri police station, who was present at the spot, said, "We received a call from the control room regarding this. Our officers are taking care of the situation. Now that he has been saved, we will know what exactly drove him to take such a drastic step."

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