Santhi Shyam Krishnan Nair was taken into custody on Saturday for killing Mohamed Rizwanul Haq (26) after an altercation over some issue.
Nair, a resident of Thiruvananathpuram district, hit Haq with the iron rod when their fellow workers were away on Friday, Gulf Times reported. Haq was from Sindhri in Madhya Pradesh.
Both of them were both employed by an air-conditioning servicing firm.
Nair was arrested from a residential compound, where he had gone into hiding following the incident, more than 24 hours later, the report said.
The accused allegedly followed Haq in the afternoon when he went to the roof of their compound and hit him using an iron rod, the report said.