ON January 10, 2014, the victim, Manojkumar Gaud, who was working at a redevelopment project on Grant Road, had slipped on wet concrete and fallen from the eighth floor of the building after the safety belt he was wearing broke. There was no safety net around the site to break his fall.
“It is well known that India’s construction industry provides employment to countless people. But there is a darker side. The sector has scant regard for the safety of workers… Every year, hundreds of workers either fall to their deaths or are buried under rubble.
Workers prioritise their employment, even at the risk of their safety. They usually choose to keep quiet about unsafe conditions because they need the job and the salary,” metropolitan magistrate Anushree Rahane said in her order.