After failed Unnao gold hunt, seer moves court for another excavation

Unfazed by his forecast of huge gold reserves in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao coming a cropper, Seer Sobhan Sarkar on Friday moved the Allahabad High Court seeking permission to carry out a similar excavation in Fatehpur.

The gold-dreaming seer is at it again. Seer Sobhan Sarkar has moved court to carry out another excavation in Fatehpur, almost a month after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) failed to find the “buried gold treasure” after month-long digging at Unnao in Uttar Pradesh based on his “dream”.

In his petition to the Allahabad high court on Friday, likely to be heard next week, Sarkar claimed there were 2,500 tonnes of gold buried in the ground at Adampur village in Fatehpur district.

Sarkar has sought the court’s direction to the state government and the district administration to allow him to carry out the excavation for which, he claimed, a preliminary survey has been carried out by experts at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

His counsel Chandan Sharma said the seer was even willing to bear the expenses involved in the excavation.

On October 18, the ASI began excavation at the fort of Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh at Daudiakala village in Unnao district – on the directions of Charan Das Mahant, Union minister of state for agriculture and food processing, and a disciple of Sarkar.

The seer had claimed that he dreamt of 1,000 tonnes of gold buried at the site.

The ASI gave up the hunt after it found no gold, only pieces of pottery and other artefacts.

Sarkar then claimed that the hidden gold could not be found as he was not “invited” to the site.