A joint team of Indian Navy, NDRF and Meghalaya State Fire and Emergency services during a search operation on Wednesday retrieved one unidentified dead body of the trapped miner from main shaft.
The body was stuck under debris in bottom of main shaft and this was traced during the Deep Diving conducted by the Navy personnel approximately 120 ft below. The dead body was carefully pulled out from the shaft and handed over to Officer-in-Charge Police Station- Saipung in presence of District administration of East Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya).
Further the dead body has been dispatched to CHC Khliehriat by Police for post mortem and identification.
It may be mentioned that the owner of an illegal coal mine in East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya has been arrested on June 4, said a police officer. The owner has been running the coal mine in which five miners have been trapped for four days. However, the rescue operation is on.
The owner, Shining Langstang, was arrested from Sutunga village near the mine in Meghalaya. The rat-hole mine at Umpleng about 20 km from Khlieriat, the district headquarters of East Jiantia Hills district was flooded after a dynamite explosion on Sunday.
A deep vertical shaft is dug till coal seams are found in the rat-hole mining. Once the seams are found, coal is taken out through small holes along the horizontal line of the coal seams.
"The Sordar (mine manager) is on the run and we are trying to arrest him. In this regard, a lookout notice has been issued and his posters have been put up throughout the district," Superintendent of Police Jagpal Singh Dhanoa said while quoted by PTI.
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