A slag hill near Jugsalai. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Nov. 24: A trip to the slag dump by a group of four women proved fatal after a portion of it caved in, burying two of them alive. The other two women sustained minor injuries and tried to rescue their companions. However, they gave up and rushed for help. By the time the rescuers arrived and dug through the slag, the victims were dead.

Those killed were identified as Uma Devi (46) and Rinki Kumari (16) daughter of Gokul Rajak, both residents of Dhobi Muhallah in Jugsalai. Police have recovered the bodies and sent them to the MGM Medical College mortuary for post-mortem.

Made of iron and coal wastes along the Kharkai River in Jugsalai, many people visit the area for collecting pieces of iron to sell them for a living. However, dumping in this area had been stopped for quite a long time by Tisco and the area was guarded by a private security agency employed by the steel major to prevent people from trespassing.

This morning at around 7 am, the four women had sneaked in to collect coal-dust despite the area being declared out of bounds.

As they were digging through the slag dump, suddenly certain portions of the area caved in trapping Uma and Rinki while the other two, aged in their teens, skidded down the slopes sustaining minor injuries.

As the news of the death of the women spread, an angry mob from the victims’ area rushed to the spot . The mob turned violent but timely intervention of police and some JMM leaders prevented the situation from going out of hands.

Uma Devi’s son, Shravan Kumar Rajak, said most of the men of the locality, including himself, were on the river bank washing cloths when the news reached the Dhobi Muhallah. “Ever since the company had declared the area as a prohibited place, I told my mother not to venture there but she never listened to me,” he said.