KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Jan 6: Two men were arrested on Friday for allegedly causing a 29-year-old youth to get accidentally killed at an emerald quarry under the Ghurabandha Thana area in Ghatsila sub-division in the East Singhbhum district.
Victim killed during illegal mining
Identified as Ganga Ram Sardar, the victim was allegedly lured into digging an unauthorised emerald quarry at Barunmuthi hill in Ghurabandha by one Debasis Pradhan on December 30. During the digging work, Ganga Ram was killed.
After the fatal accident, Pradhan who is also a resident of Ghurabandha brought the body to the house of the victim and forced his family members to get the body cremated in a haphazard way, without informing the police about the incident.
But the victim’s father, Kartik Sardar on Friday lodged an FIR with the Ghurabandha Thana alleging Pradhan to have committed all this criminal act, leading the police to swing into action immediately.
Also Read- Jharkhand Weather: Moderate fog alert for next 48 hours
Police recover emeralds from accused
Following the FIR, the police not only arrested Debasis Pradhan (44) but also arrested his associate, Rahul Prasad Munda (31) and recovered 25 grams and 47 grams of emeralds from the duo respectively during the investigation.
The police also recovered the semi-burnt body of Ganga Ram from near his house before sending it to the Ghatsila sub-divisional hospital for postmortem.
Accused sent to judicial custody
Revealing about the breakthrough, OC, Ghurabandha Thana, Pervez Alam said that high-quality emerald is found in the Barunmuthi hill which spreads to the adjoining Mayurbhanj district of Odisha and attracts several unethical businessmen who trade in the precious stones business.
“Though several smugglers had been arrested with emerald stocks from the Ghurabandha Thana area earlier, but this was for the first time that a labourer who was lured into digging the precious stone was killed during the illegal mining,” said Alam while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
The OC stated that both Debasis Pradhan and Rahul Prasad Munda were forwarded to the judicial custody on Saturday morning.
