Four people were killed and four others injured after part of an abandoned coal mine collapsed during "illegal" mining in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district in the early hours of Saturday, an official said.
The incident happened at the Karma project in Mahua Tangri in Kuju Outpost area.
"Four bodies have been recovered from the accident site, while four injured were rescued," Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Ramgarh Anurag Kumar Tiwari told PTI.
The deceased were identified as Md Imtiyaz, Rameshwar Manjhi, Wakil Karmali and Nirmal Munda. All of them hailed from nearby villages.
The relief and rescue operation has been called off after the debris was removed, a police officer said.
"There is no possibility of any person being trapped inside as the debris has been removed," Ramgarh's SDPO Parmeshwar Prasad said.
SP Ajay Kumar said the abandoned mine belonged to Central Coalfields Ltd.
"The company has its own security personnel to stop such illegal activities. We extended our cooperation to CCL after we received the information," he said.
A section of villagers demonstrated near the CCL Karma Project office to protest the incident and demand compensation.
Accusing CCL of negligence, the protestors demanded compensation of Rs 20 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh for the injured.
"The company left the mine open. Poor villagers went to extract coal for cooking fuel, and the incident happened. If there was barricading and adequate security in the mine, this accident could have been avoided," Md Kalam, a villager, said.
A meeting of the villagers and CCL management also took place on the compensation. The outcome of it is yet to be known.
Kuju police outpost in-charge Ashutosh Kumar Singh said that some villagers were involved in "illegal" mining of coal at the site when the incident happened.
The district administration issued a show-cause notice to the CCL management over the incident, officials said.
Union Minister Annapurna Devi termed the incident unfortunate and said that the state government should be sensible and immediately take steps to check the recurrence of such incidents.
"It appears that the state government is ignorant and it has nothing to do with such incidents. I would urge the state government to take action over such incident," she said.
Leader of the Opposition Babulal Marandi of the BJP demanded a high-level probe into the incident.
"I am deeply saddened by this news. Many of our labourer brothers are feared to be buried in illegal coal mines. I pray to god for their safety and express my deepest condolences to the bereaved families," he said in a post on X.
He also claimed that this was not an accident, but murder.
"This is due to the negligence of the corrupt and incompetent government, which turns a blind eye to the illegal business going on in broad daylight," he alleged.
Marandi questioned that if the CCL had closed the mine, how the coal mafia was operating there.
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