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The police in Meghalaya’s West Khasi Hills district have arrested the owner of the coal mine that collapsed and claimed the life of a miner early Friday morning (August 19.)
“The owner was identified as Hubath R. Sangma of Gurakalam village in the district’s Shallang area after an investigation into the mishap,” officials said.
“The man has been arrested and is being interrogated before he is forwarded to judicial custody,” the district’s Superintendent of Police, Herbert G. Lyngdoh said.
The case against the mine owner was registered on the basis of a first information report filed by B. P. Talang, a sub-inspector of police and officer-in-charge of the Shallang police station.
Mr. Lyngdoh said the coal mine is located in the dense forest of Urak (Riangdim), which is about 25KM from the Shallang police station. The place takes about three hours to reach, much of the distance accessible on foot.
“It was found that mine owner instructed the two miners – Lependro Sangma and Hendit Momin, both from the North Garo Hills district – to enter the mine around 5 a. m. on August 19. But the mine collapsed after they entered it,” he said.
Lependro died on the spot while Hendit, seriously injured, is under treatment at the Shallang primary health centre.
The police seized about eight tonnes of extracted coal, two pushcarts for ferrying coal from inside the mine to a depot nearby, two shovels and two pickaxes.
The National People’s Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government has often been accused of ignoring an April 2014 ban by the National Green Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court on rat-hole coal mining. Activists say illegal mining of coal has continued, leading to a few accidents that have killed more than 30 miners – mostly from Assam – since December 2018.
“The district police are constantly cracking down on illegal extraction and transportation of coal,” Mr Lyngdoh said.
