The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday began digging at an 18th century fort in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh to look for tonnes of gold presumably buried underneath the undulating fields.
In a statement issued on Friday evening, the ministry said the GSI sent an inquiry report to Ministry of Mines on October 8 mentioning "prominent non-magnetic anomalous zone occurring at 5-20 m depth indicative of possible non conducting, metallic contents and/or some alloys, etc. may be tested by excavation for further interest at the specified site".
It said ASI was told to excavate the site on the basis of the GSI report "to unearth and determine the nature of the reported deposits".
"This is reported to be an ancient settlement site which may have the potential of being an important archaeological location," the ministry said.
It said the excavation work that began on Friday was estimated to take a minimum two to three weeks to reach the reported level of deposits.
The gold is said to be hidden under the fort of Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh.
The entire episode began after sadhu Shobhan Sarkar wrote to the prime minister narrating the king had come in his dreams and asked him to get the treasure dug up and hand it over to the government of India to tide the economic crisis.
His devotee, Congress leader Bhakt Charan Das, then urged the ASI to take up the issue.
- With IANS inputs
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