Mystery, thrill and curiosity when the government of India went out to find the buried treasure

BY- Rajeev Choudhary Author, Blogger

You must have seen many such movies about the treasure hunt in Bollywood Hollywood, in which the hero of the film finds the treasure in the end. But the anecdote that we have brought today is not a movie but a real incident. In which there is a treasure of one thousand tons of gold and some film diamonds came out to find the treasure, but it was the government of India.

The month of October was the year 2013, about 555 km from the capital of the country, a saint was sleeping in a deep sleep. Suddenly the saint had a dream. In the dream, the saint started seeing thousands of tons of gold buried under the ruins of an old fort. This dream full of diamonds and jewels, gold and silver, ruined the sleep of the saint. This place was 50 km from Lucknow and about 80 km from Kanpur, Daudikheda village of Unnao district. The name of these saints was Swami Viraktanand alias Shobhan Sarkar and the ruined fort was of 19th century Raja Raoram Baksh Singh and there was a Congress coalition government in the country.

The dreaming saint Shobhan Sarkar had a great reputation in Kanpur and its surrounding districts. His followers ranged from common man to many ministers and leaders. For this reason, this dream shown to Sant Shobhan Sarkar was unnatural in itself. The second saint Shobhan Sarkar claimed that in his dream Rajarao Rambakhsh Singh, the king of Daundiya Kheda himself, had come and told him that thousands of tons of gold were buried under the ruins of his fort.

In fact, Rajarao Rambakhsh Singh, the last king of Daundiya Kheda, revolted against the British in 1857. He had to face defeat in this rebellion and was hanged by the British. The kings were sacrificed on the country and the British destroyed the fort. This fort built on the banks of the Ganges turned into ruins over time due to lack of maintenance. Became a haunted fort. Not only this, many stories of Raja Rambux Singh are famous in Unnao, among them there is an anecdote that some British soldiers had captured the Shiv temple inside this palace and the king burnt them alive. It is also said that the king had jewelery shops in Kanpur, but during the war with the British, he buried all the gold in this palace.

This palace of Daundiyakheda village may have become deserted over time. But the tales of the treasure swirled once again in the stories of the people living here, Sant Shobhan Sarkar narrated this dream to Charandas Mahant, who was a minister in the then UPA government. Charandas Mahant believed in the dream and after that Charandas Mahant wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister of the country Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to excavate the fort. As soon as this letter of thousands of tonnes of gold treasure reached the Congress government at the Center, on the other hand, the Akhilesh government in Uttar Pradesh started getting twisted. Whether there is any treasure under the palace or not, it would have been known only after excavation, but the tussle had started over the treasure. Yes, why not the reason for this was also justified. The matter was of 1000 tonnes of gold, while during that time only about 550 tonnes of gold was available with the country’s largest bank, the Reserve Bank of India. It was expected that about double the gold available with the government could come out here. The financial deficit of a loss-making country can be overcome. But, the villagers started making the first claim on this and, expressing their right, the villagers started making many demands. On the other hand, the Center and the states came face to face with the claims on the treasury. There was a debate in the news studios about whose right over the treasury. And again and again the debate would stop here that the treasury would be the property of the nation. The then Minister of State for Agriculture, Charan Das Mahant himself had clearly said that if gold is found, then only the right will belong to the country and no one else.

Look amazing, the whole country started believing in this dream, the then Congress government, which had called Hindu babas as thugs, also went to the shelter of the sadhus as soon as the name of the treasury came up. Not only the government, but without a court order, the same media, which proved the Hindu saint Jayendra Saraswati to be a murderer, was doing the slander of Asharam Bapu and Hindu religion at that time. The same media which was telling the bone powder in Baba Ramdev’s medicines by taking goods from foreign pharma companies during that time, but when it came to the treasury, the saliva of the government and the media started flowing.

Well, when this dream became public, then security forces started appearing around the fort. The then Congress government also persuaded the Ministry of Mines and the Archaeological Survey of India to get this buried thousands of tons of gold deposits excavated.

That is, with the approval of the Ministry of Mines and the Department of Archeology, it was decided that from October 18, digging in search of gold would start under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey Department in Daundiya Kheda. With this news, the fort, which had been deserted for decades, started buzzing. First, the people of Daundiya Kheda then started reaching nearby people and on seeing, people from Kanpur Unnao to Lucknow started gathering to see thousands of tonnes of buried gold. As the crowd grew around the fort, the movement of people increased. There was a street of food and drink. If someone started selling pakoras by frying them, then the jalebi shop started decorating somewhere. Seeing the crowd, paan beedi cigarette scallops started decorating. For coverage of the excavation, representatives of media organizations from all over the country started gathering in Daundiya Kheda. Live broadcast started on TV. When the crowd and the media reached, the vehicles of local leaders with lights also started arriving. In this way, every leader is trying to show that this treasure has been received from his lotus tax. That is, when the country’s all-knowing media, government ministers and MLAs arrived, the administration had to make heavy arrangements for police forces for security.

The deserted fort of Daundiya Kheda turned into a maze. For excavation, the fort was divided into two sections. Before the excavation, Sant Shobhan Sarkar duly performed the land worship of the excavation site. After this, the then District Magistrate Vijay Kiran Anand formally started the excavation with the first shovel. Soon after, a 12-member team of the Archaeological Department started excavation work. From the Manmohan Singh government sitting in Delhi, now everyone was watching this excavation with hope. When did the pots full of gold and silver come out from there? In view of the growing crowd, PK Mishra, leading the team of the Department of Archeology, announced that the excavation may take more than a month to reach any result.

The excavation in search of 1000 tonnes of gold treasure had just started that now suddenly a hindrance has come to the fore. Some people, who claimed to be the descendants of the king, reached to take their share in the treasury. They started saying that we are the fourth and fifth generation of King Rambakhsh, so if the treasure comes out, then we should also be given a share. As soon as they were silenced, the excavation proceeded.

The excavation kept getting deeper and was dug up to 16 feet deep. Till now the treasure was not even a single coin of iron copper was being found. Foreign media was also covering the excavation when India started becoming a joke in the world. Baba Shobhan Sarkar, who suddenly dreamed of treasure, got angry with the ASI’s excavation method and went to an ashram in Kanpur, 100 km from his ashram in Unnao. After 16 feet of excavation, rocky land was found, but there was no trace of the treasure anywhere. After 12 days, when nothing was achieved, the Archaeological Department decided to stop the excavation, in all this dramatic development, the country and the government had become a joke. From the Ministry of Mines to the Archaeological Survey of India also began to be ridiculed and finally on 14 November 2013, gold mining was formally stopped in Unnao’s Daundiyakheda. Not only was it closed but the Archaeological Survey of India called it a lesson of a lifetime.

Questions arose as to how the government decided to excavate on the basis of superstition. Even the ASI officials had to say that they are digging not for the treasure, but for the objects of archaeological importance, whose importance is also no less than the treasure. However, it was said on behalf of Sant Shobhan Sarkar that the search for the treasure is being done from a scientific point of view, while it is a matter related to supernaturalism, gold will definitely come out in the excavation and he will remove it after the team of the Archaeological Department leaves from Daundiyakheda village. On 18 November 2013, the ASI started filling the trenches dug, but what could never be filled at that time, which caused a disgrace to the government, the country and the society. In the year 2020, Sant Shobhan Sarkar got absorbed in death, but say this superstition or faith is still alive in Daundiyakheda that a lot of treasure is buried under the fort.

BY- Rajeev Choudhary Author Blogger