GUWAHATI: Police are investigating the cause of death of three labourers at a coal mine in Assam’s Tinsukia district on the Arunachal Pradesh border.
The police said the incident occurred outside the Ledo Tikok coalfield on Sunday night. The police picked up eight persons, including fellow labourers, in connection with the incident.
Tinsukia Superintendent of Police Debojit Deori told The New Indian Express it was still not clear if the persons died by inhaling a toxic gas as claimed by fellow labourers or due to other reasons.
“On learning about the incident last (Monday) night, we rushed a team to the site and recovered the bodies. The bodies were buried and had to be exhumed before being sent for post-mortem,” Deori said.
“We don’t know if the persons were alive or dead when buried. There could be a criminal angle too. So, unless we receive the report of post-mortem, we cannot say anything with certainty,” Deori said.
He said one David, who is the owner of the illegal coal mine, had brought 11 Muslim labourers from lower Assam’s Bongaigaon and Goalpara districts to extract coal by following the method of rat-hole mining.
“He will make them extract coal clandestinely at night. He is the prime accused and we have registered a case against him. He is absconding but we will catch him soon,” the SP said.
Mine tragedies are common in the neighbouring and coal-rich Meghalaya where scores of labourers, mostly from Assam, lost their lives over the years.