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Contradicting TV reports about discontinuation of the gold hunt inside the ruins of an 18th century fort in Daundiya Kheda village of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh, a senior Archaeological Survey of India official said in Lucknow on Tuesday that the excavation in search of gold will go on.
“Work will remain suspended on Wednesday simply because it is the weekly off given to the team involved in the excavation”, the official said.
Meanwhile, excavation that was undertaken in the ten pits carved at the site has gone as deep as 4.18 metres. “We have struck a hard surface from where we will proceed further from Thursday,” he added.
The excavation was initiated at the behest of a popular local godman Baba Shobhan Sarkar, who claimed to have witnessed a dream showing presence of 1000 tons of gold under the ruins of the said fort. His close disciple and spokesman Om Baba had been claiming, “The team will find the gold once the digging has touched 16 feet (approx 5 metres).”
On Tuesday, Om Baba added another condition, “Gold will surface only if the government gives an explicit assurance that the entire treasure will go entirely to the Reserve Bank of India and neither to the ASI nor to the state government or to any other claimant”.
Image: The site of excavation at Daundiya Kheda village, Unnao