Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Aug 11: In an interesting development reported from Vandse village in the taluk, a person scaled a huge mobile tower there on Tueday August 11, sending locals, police and firemen into a tizzy. He said his employer has not paid him the salary due to him, and demanding payment of arrears from the employer, he threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the mobile tower.

The person, who sat atop a 300-ft Reliance mobile tower here, has been identified as Biju (28) from Kerala. In the early hours on Monday, he went up the mobile tower located by the side of Vandse main road, and began to pose threats of jumping down.

Hundreds of people gathered at the spot. Fire brigade personnel and staff from Kollur police station also reached the spot, and tried hard to convince Biju to get down from the tower and then negotiate with his employer. But Biju remained stubborn, and repeated his threat to jump off.

A person named Shashidharan from Kerala has been engaged in the work of building concrete rings for wells and also sinking of wells in and around Vandse since the last 24 years. A number of workers hailing from Kerala have been employed by Shashidharan. It is learnt that Biju has been working for Shashidharan since the last eight years, and that the employer is due to pay about Rs 60,000 to Biju towards pending salary. Recently Shashidharan paid Rs 10,000 to Biju, and the youth, not satisfied with this part payment, went up the tower demanding the pending dues from the employer.

While atop the tower, Biju also called a friend of his employer and threatened to commit suicide if he was not paid his pending dues. The employer who rushed to the spot assured that he would pay the outstanding salary within two days.

Finally, the fire personnel themselves climbed the tower and managed to bring Biju down. He was then taken to the government hospital in Vandse and given first aid.