Rajesh Turi and Binod Bhuiyan, two illegal coal miners of Amrasota area have been allegedly killed after a portion of a coal block fell upon them at an abandoned coal mine of ECL in Raniganj today. Two others, Ram Pradesh Barnwal and Karu Bhuiyan were injured. The two dead bodies have been sent by Raniganj Police to Asansol District Hospital for post-mortem. Sunil Kumar Choudhury, commissioner of police of Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate said that police have not received any written complaint from anybody so far.
An unnatural death case has been registered at Raniganj police station. Raniganj Police has started investigations and has been waiting for the postmortem report. Agnimitra Paul, MLA of Asansol South visited the houses of the victims and demanded a high-level probe and compensation for the families of the two deceased miners. Narendra Nath Chakraborty, MLA of Pandaveswar and also the district president of Trinamul Congress rushed to the spot. The TMC and the CPM have agitated in front of the ECL office demanding compensation.
Narendra Nath Chakraborty said that the family has told him that they went for morning walk today and slipped and fell inside the coal mine. ECL has abandoned these coal mines and TMC has demanded compensation from the Satgram Area GM office for them. “I am leaving for Kolkata now but will definitely meet the ECL top officials and ask them to guard their properties. Innocent and poor people are losing their lives for very little money. Last time also, I agitated in front of the GM office and will once again take up the issue in a proper forum,” said the BJP leader. So far, there has been no official comment from eastern Coalfields Limited on this issue. Despite ED and CBI raids in recent years and crackdown on coal mafia rackets in the past few months, once again illegal coal mining has flourished with new faces, sources said. The CISF has seized illegal coal in Jamuria in recent times and bulldozed the illegal rat-hole mines.