Five people have died and around a dozen people are suspected to be buried under the debris of the cave pit when a coal mine collapsed during illegal mining of coal yesterday night in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand. The incident took place in the Block Two area of BCCL operating in the Esargarh area under the Baghmara police station. However, BCCL and the district administration have presently denied reporting of any such incident.

Sources informed that the people who died belonged to Giridih of Taratand police station. Saryu Roy, JDU MLA from Jamshedpur East, in a social media post on X handle, has blamed the government for the prevailing illegal coal mining business in Jharkhand under protection from coal mafias. Meanwhile, BJP State Spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo claimed that 9 people have died in the illegal coal mining incident. He also said that the negligence of the State government has led to such an incident in Jharkhand within a fortnight.