Illegal mining of coal near a Central Coalfield Limited’s (CCL) coal Washary, Swang project, which has caused several accidents in the past claimed its latest victim, a youth, here on Saturday evening.

Golden Prasad alias Sakti Kapoor Prasad, a resident of Patwa basti under the Gomia police station in Bokaro, died in an accident that occurred at Swang Washary project only half kilometer from Gomia police station.

Golden Prasad was crushed to death when the roof of the mine where he was extracting collapsed on him. The collapse led to panic among the other villagers, who were engaged in illegal mining.

The local police In-Charge Binay Kumar rushed to the spot and recovered the body of Golden Prasad and sent it for postmortem at Tenughat sub-division hospital.

Sources said that large scale illegal mining continues in Swang CCL project of Bokaro district raising the possibility of more accidents. Although this fact had come to light well before the mishap, the local police and coal companies have not done enough to check such activities. Extraction of coal is rampant in several closed mines at Bermo coal field.

The CCL who operate in these areas have declared about a dozen mines dangerous and stopped mining activities in it. However ,safety measures like filling up closed mines with stand for checking illegal mining has not been undertaken .Taking advantage of the loopholes ,coal mafia have lure poverty-stricken villagers to take to coal mining in the abandoned mines .

The villagers often go deep inside tunnels dug in closed mines without following any of the safety norms.