Following the tragic fire incident at an illegal rat hole coal mine at Ruchayan village or Ruchan village in Bhandari sub-division under Wokha district, the police have arrested two co-owners of the mine namely Moyithung Tungoe and Tsenjamo Mozhui. The other two co-owners Akjur Ali and Saiful Ali, both from Doyalpur in Golaghat district in Assam were said to be absconding.

Six miners were killed on 25th January following fire and explosion inside a coal mine in Ruchayan village. The deceased, all of whom were from Golaghat district in Assam, have been identified as Majibul Ali (46), Kamal Bahadur Chetry (47), Bishal Thapa (26), Dol Bahadur Chetry (44), Bikram Rai (28) and Bahadur Chetry (60).

Four others were injured in the incident – Santosh Chetry (23), Ramesh Chetry (36), Bhupen Rajbongshi (34) and Lak Nath Chetry (27) – are reportedly admitted in a hospital in Dimapur. It was learnt on Saturday that the injured are in good condition.

Read more: Six dead in rat hole mine fire at Bhandari

The report of the Officer in Charge, Bhandari Police Station, mentioned that the Ruchayan rat hole coal mine had been operative since September 2023 and that no safety measures were in place.

Assam’s Minister for Public Health Engineering; Skill, Employment & Entrepreneurship and Tourism Departments, Jayanta Mallabarua visited the families of the deceased at Devipur, Sonapur, and Dayalpur villages and offered his “deepest condolences and further assured them of all possible assistance from our end.”