ASI starts digging for gold at Unnao fort Friday Oct 18,2013

The hunt for about a 1,000 tonnes of gold a seer told officials lies buried at a nineteenth century fort in an Uttar Pradesh village started on Friday Oct 18,2013

The Archeological Survey of India(ASI) experts reached Unnao on Thursday and met the district magistrate before the taking up the excavation. The administration, on its part, has sanitized the points marked for digging and banned the entry of general public.

A 12-member team comprising archaeologists, geologists and workers began digging a mound in the ruins of the fort built by Raja Rao Ram Baksh Singh, in Duandia Kheda village in Unnao district, 100km from Lucknow

The highly-revered local seer Shobhan Sarkar had dreamt that Raja Rao Ram Baksh Singh, who gave his life for the country fighting the British in 1857, told him to take care of the gold buried in the remains of his fort. The seer shared his dream with one and all, including Union minister Charan Das Mahant who did not dismiss it as joke. Instead, Mahant visited the village and this is how the ASI and GSI got active.

The excavation was planned after the Geological Survey of India had noted the presence of some valuable metals beneath the earth at the fort. The presence of a non-rocky substance at the depth of 20-metres noticed during the geological survey was the only “proof” that prompted the excavation.