Seer moves UP court to survey another site for gold

The seer whose "dream" set the government digging for 1,000 tonnes of gold, buried underneath a dilapidated fort in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, Thursday moved a court to conduct a survey to find another 2,500 tonnes gold at a village in the state's Fatehpur district.

Shobhan Sarkar, through his disciple Om Baba, approached the Allahabad High Court and sought permission to conduct a survey followed by excavation to find 2,500 tonnes of gold in Adampur village of Fatehpur district.

The seer pleaded that he would get the survey done at his expense and has, in fact, roped in a Kanpur-based company, ISM, for the purpose.

A sum of about Rs.78,000 has been deposited with the company for the survey and Rs.85,000 for transportation of the team and necessary equipments.

The seer has also claimed paying Rs.3.35 lakh to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur for assistance in the survey.

Counsel for the seer told the bench headed by Justice V.K. Shukla that Shobhan Sarkar had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, district magistrate of Fatehpur and many other people, seeking permission to conduct the survey.

However, he has not received any response so far. Counsel of the Kanpur-based seer, Chandan Sharma and Umesh Narayan Sharma said that the matter has been referred to another bench.

Shobhan Sarkar's "dream" of over 1,000 tonnes of gold lying buried underneath a temple in the fort of Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh in Dondiakheda village in Unnao district led the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and other central and state government agencies into action and created immense interest in the national and international media.

The three-week long digging, however, came a cropper as the ASI wind up its operations after nothing much except some broken bangles and earthenware was found from the site.