An elderly painter from Punjab who had been stuck in a hotel in Haridwar since late March jumped to his death from the building’s fifth floor on Sunday, becoming another victim of the sudden Covid-19 lockdown that has left thousands in workless limbo.

Rama Shankar, 56, had come from Nabha, Patiala, to Haridwar with his son Manjeet, 22, and three helpers after he was hired by some businessmen in the Uttarakhand temple town to paint buildings.

Police said Rama Shankar had reached Haridwar on March 14 but was told to stop work on March 22, three days before the nationwide lockdown began.

“He was staying on the ground floor of the hotel located in Shrawannath Nagar. He went to the fifth floor and jumped from there, dying instantly after falling on the ground,” Sanjeet Kandari, of the Mayapur police outpost, said.

“The son of the deceased told us that Rama Shankar’s mental condition was unsound. We have sent his body for the post mortem and are waiting for the report.”

Praveen Singh Koshyari, station house officer, Kotwali police station, said: “We are trying to investigate under what circumstances the painter went upstairs and jumped to his death from there.”

However, Manjeet did not mention this when he spoke to local journalists. He said it was the third time they had been hired by some businessmen to paint their houses and business installations in Haridwar.

“I had visited Haridwar thrice with my father in the last four years. Every time we would bring two or three helpers. People used to like our work here. But it was the responsibility of my father to take care of the helpers and pay them from whatever he would get from the employers,” Manjeet said.

“The police forced our employers to stop all work on March 22, when the Janata Curfew was imposed on a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Had we realised then that it was a warm-up for a lockdown from March 25, we would have returned to Nabha,” he added.

“We thought we would be allowed to work and so stayed in the hotel, which had been booked for us by our employers. As the state government announced last week that it would make arrangements for migrant workers to return home, our employers started mounting pressure on us to leave Haridwar. They were unable to bear our burden any longer. But the government didn’t do anything on the ground to send us home.”

Koshyari said the police, the hotel’s management and their employers had “jointly made every arrangement” for them. “They were staying free of cost and getting food on time. The government is taking care of those who are stranded because of the lockdown.”