SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 8: Two persons, including a minor girl died and one person was seriously injured during illegal mining in closed Lohapatti mines of Bharat Coking Coal Limited(BCCL) under Mahuda police station, around 30 km away from the district headquarters on Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as Binod Mahto alias Badal (27), son of Prayag Mahto, resident of Jamdiha village and Roshni Kumari (13), daughter of late Nageswar Lala.
In eight days this was the second mine incident allegedly during illegal mining in Dhanbad district. On February 1 ( Tuesday) five persons, including four women) had died during illegal mining in Nirsa based closed mines of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL).
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 11.30 am. All of a sudden the roof of the mines caved in and three persons were trapped under coal and clay debris.
Local villagers rescued three persons from debris through the JCB machine of BCCL and took them away to Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) Bokaro where doctors declared Binod Mahto and Roshni Kumari brought dead. The treatment of the third victim is being done.
After getting information Mahuda police sub Inspector Nirmal Kumar Murmu reached the incident spot with the team and got an illegal mining spot filled. “ I have not seen any trapped person. The investigation is being done over the alleged incident. Only after a probe, we would be able to say about the incident,” said Murmu.
SSP Sanjiv Kumar, however, denied that it was a case of illegal mining. He said that he had no information about any casualty in the incident.
