'Holy' pumpkins fetch Rs 100,000

Pumpkins grown in a mosque compound in a Bihar village were auctioned for Rs.100,000 with people frantically bidding for what they believed was a god's gift.

Pumpkins grown in a mosque compound in a Bihar village were auctioned for Rs.100,000 with people frantically bidding for what they believed was a god's gift.

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Twentyone pumpkins grown in a mosque in Udaiganj in Aurangabad district, about 150 km from here, were auctioned Friday. A large number of people queued up to buy the 'blessed' vegetable.

"Thanks to people's belief that pumpkins grown in the mosque are special, we auctioned them for Rs.1 lakh (Rs.100,000)," mosque cleric Maulana Naimuddin Ahmad said.

In Aurangabad, pumpkin usually sell for Rs.6 per kg. Last month, pumpkins were auctioned by the mosque for Rs.50,000, the cleric added.