Dondia Khera village Treasure hunt

ASI to begin excavation in UP fort for 1000 tonnes of gold after sadhu's dream

Dondia Khera Village Fort

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will start the excavation for 1,000 tonnes of gold, which a seer dreamt, at a dilapidated fort in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district

LUCKNOW: October 18, 2013  (TNP) – The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday began excavating for a treasure of 1,000 tonnes of gold, which a sadhu dreamt to have been buried at a dilapidated fort in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district.

Officials said after ‘puja’ was performed by Hindu sadhus, the survey for the hidden gold began at 11 am at the old fort at Dondia Khera village. The fort belonged to Unnao’s mid-19th century ruler Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh. Unnao is 50km from the state capital Lucknow.

Officials said the survey of the fort of the late ruler of Unnao, Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh, at Dondia Khera village will begin at 11 a.m. after 'puja' is performed by Hindu seers. Unnao is 50 km from the state capital Lucknow.

ASI officials have been camping at the site for the last three days and completed marking the area of the potential treasure trove late Thursday amid tight security.

Thousands turned up at the site as the news of the dream occurring to venerated seer Shobhan Sarkar spread and the district administration has now banned the entry of people into the fort premises.

Shobhan Sarkar, a famous saint in the region, wrote to the prime minister a few weeks back, saying 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 over the economic crisis.

Preliminary findings, officials say, suggested presence of "some metal underneath the earth", following which ASI teams decided to proceed with the excavation.

Experts, however, are not too sure about the possibility of gold buried underneath.

While many do not rule out the discovery of some gold, they say it is not possible for 1,000 tonnes of gold being buried under the fort as Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh was a ruler who presided over a zamindari stretching not more than 25-30 km.

"He was not a big king and hence it looks unlikely that such a huge gold reserve would be found there," said D.P. Tiwari, former head of the History and Archaeology department at the Lucknow university.

For the villagers, however, Shobhan Sarkar's words are sacrosanct.

Mahendra Pratap Singh, a descendant of the late Unnao ruler, says people firmly believe that if the seer has said it, the gold has to be there.

People have also demanded that in case gold was found, 20 percent of it be spent on development of the area.

Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh fought the British along with Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi during the 1857 mutiny and was overthrown in the process. He went into hiding only to be captured in Varanasi after which he was sent to the gallows.

The old fort at Dondia Khera village belongs to Unnao's mid-19th century ruler Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh. Unnao is 50 km from the state capital Lucknow.

Indian police arrest crew of American ship 'MV Seaman Guard Ohio' - Another Maersk Alabama in hot water

• Security breach by American ship illegally carrying arms and ammunition
• India justifies detention of American ship, arrest of its crew

MV Seaman Guard Ohio 

The ship is accused of carrying a cache of weapons and ammunition in Indian waters and failing to produce proper paperwork for it.

Tuticorin:  Indian police have arrested the crew of a US-owned ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio, that was impounded on October 12, on charges of illegally transporting weapons and ammunition in Indian waters.

Eight crew and 25 security guards aboard the MV Seaman Guard Ohio were arrested after they failed to produce documents allowing them to carry the weapons, Indian government officials said.

Two other crew members, who were not arrested, were allowed to stay on board to carry out maintenance work.

The crew and security guards on board included British, Estonian, Indian and Ukrainian nationals.

Police said they had seized 35 automatic weapons and nearly 5,700 rounds of ammunition from the security guards on the ship.

The men were charged with illegal possession of weapons and ammunition and entering India's territorial waters without permission.

The ship is owned by Virginia-based security company AdvanFort but is registered in Sierra Leone.

It was detained on October 12 and has been in Tuticorin port in southern India's Tamil Nadu state.

India justified the detention of a ship owned by an American company, on Friday, and the arrest of its crew, saying the action was taken as the vessel in Indian waters carried arms, ammunition and armed guards without necessary authorisation.

"The vessel is owned by an American company but has the flag of Sierra Leone. It was stopped by the Coast Guard in consideration of issues like it was carrying arms, ammunition and armed guards without necessary authorisation," Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

India is very sensitive about the presence of armed security guards on merchant ships after two fishermen were shot dead by armed Italian marines last year.

The marines, who are facing trial in India, were part of a military security team on a cargo ship when they fired at the fishermen, mistaking them for pirates.

Indian investigators are trying to determine whether an American ship, detained for illegally entering Indian waters and carrying guns and ammunition without permission, was involved in arms trafficking.

The investigation by the 'Q' Branch police of the state's specialised wing in the last two days has revealed that the vessel was found in the country's territorial waters and was in possession of a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, without valid authorisation of documents, police said.

Police said the two crew members have been permitted to stay on board the vessel to carry out maintenance of the ship till further arrangements were made and they would also be arrested later.

Here are 10 big developments in this story:

1. 31 assault rifles and around 5,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the ship that was detained at the Tuticorin coast in Tamil Nadu early on Saturday morning, 600 kms south of Chennai.
2. Indian security agencies are investigating whether the ship was involved in arms trafficking. The ship's presence in Indian waters is being seen as a serious breach of security. The MV Seaman Guard Ohio was not authorized to enter Indian waters.
3. The ship is owned by an American  company named AdvanFort, which specialises in maritime security against pirates. Representatives of the firm in India have met with Coast Guard officials to discuss the case.
4. Sources handling the case said that a police case has been filed against the 35 people on board for illegally transporting arms and ammunition.
5. The ship had reportedly been in Indian waters for three days before it was detected. Local fishermen tipped off the Coast Guard that they were being approached by the Seaman Ohio's crew to sell food and other supplies to them.
6. The Centre has asked the Tamil Nadu government for a detailed report on what the interrogation of the crew members reveals.
7. "You have had piracy earlier in the Strait of Malacca and now in the Gulf. People who provide such security need a floating armoury. My suspicion is that the boat in Tuticorin is a floating armoury for one of these private security agencies," said Deputy National Security Adviser Nehchal Sandhu.  
8. According to the Coast Guard, the ship was manned by a 10-member crew and had 25 security guards. 12 of the people on board are Indians; four of them are allegedly former officers from the Indian army and navy, says PTI.
9. The ship was also carrying 1,500 litres of diesel which had allegedly been bought illegally.  Investigators are trying to determine which Indian agents supplied the fuel.  
10. Sources said this is the second time in the last two months that the ship has been detained by the Coast Guard. But the last time around, those who searched the ship said nothing suspicious was found on board.

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India defeated Australia

Jaipur, October 16
What do you do after watching a thriller like the one played out at Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Wednesday - admire India's herculean batting effort or lament the miserable bowling attack that was torn to shreds.

A difficult question to answer, considering that the performances batsmen and bowlers came up with qualify to go down as one of the best and worst in the annals of the Indian cricket.

At the end of the day,however, it's the superlative batting effort that will stay in the minds of the people for a long, long time, pushing the forgettable bowling show into oblivion. And that's how it should be as Indian batsmen scaled an almost insurmountable peak in chasing down a mammoth 359, in what is overall the second highest successful chase and India's best ever in the ODIs. The chase, in addition to the fabulous victory, also gave India its fastest centurion in this format - Virat Kohli who hammered unbeaten hundred off just 52 balls, studded with eight hits to the boundary and seven over it.

The match, before this incredible effort, looked all but lost for India after the Australians butchered Indian attack to put up a record 359 - the same total they amassed in the 2003 World Cup final against India, with all of their top five batsmen hammering half-centuries, a first in the ODIs.

With nothing short of a shot required at history for victory, it's only fair to assume that the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma would have had more doubts than hope swirling in their head as they walked out to the middle.

But with every passing over, as they grew in confidence and the strokes started flowing from their willows, the hope returned, and everyone sat tight in anticipation of the victory that they would retell everyone who had not been fortunate enough to witness it.

The faint glimmer of hope started flickering a little more violently when the raced to hundred with loss, and then, in no time, India had 176 runs on the board without loss. At this juncture, India lost Dhawan, missing the highly deserved hundred merely by five runs.

If one thought he had seen the best knock of the day, punctuated with rasping pulls and thumping cover drives and ferocious cuts, and Australia had got the window of opportunity they were desperately looking for, it didn't take him long to stand corrected.

Entered Virat Kohli, and the balance tilted even more rapidly in India's favour. While Rohit Sharma also played an impressive 141-run knock, it was the stunning hundred from off just 52 balls from Virat Kohli, the fastest by in Indian in the ODIs, that took away one' breath and the game from Australia. "It was just an unbelievable knock from Virat. No matter what we did, he just going…that's was pretty much the turning point of the game for me," said Australia captain George Bailey.

It was indeed an incredible assault from the Delhi boy, something impossible to describe in words. All one could say is that the harder the Australians threw the ball at him, the farther it flew into the stands. He got into the thick of things the moment he arrived on the wicket, and soon the ball was flying to all corners of the stadium.

The Australians just didn't know what and where to bowl, and soon the daunting target was overhauled just like that with plenty to spare, 6.3 overs and nine wickets. An incredible win indeed!

The Indian bowlers, too, must have taken some heart and consolation from the beating their counterparts took. Given the limitation of this particular attack, no one was expecting them to bowl the Aussies out for a modest total. 

All one would have hoped for was par performance, not letting Australians set a target that was tucked away in the realms of the impossible. Yet, that's what exactly happened. It all began with the pacers inability to pick up early wicket. Aaron Finch and Phil Hughes saw off the new ball without any damage yet again, putting on 74 run for the first wicket. With the platform laid, the following batsmen, Shane Watson (59), George Bailey (92) and Glenn Maxwell (52) tore apart the Indian attack.

While the charge from the Aussies was of course brutal, the bowlers were guilty of offering them easy pickings, bowling short of length, full tosses and over-pitched stuff with alarming regularity.

SCOREBOARD

Australia
Finch run out (Raina) 50
Hughes c Dhoni b Ashwin 83
Watson c I Sharma b Vinay 59
Bailey not out 92
Maxwell run out (Raina) 53
Voges c Kumar b Vinay 11
Haddin not out1
Extras: (lb 5, w 5) 10
Total (5 wickets; 50 overs) 359
Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-182, 3-212, 4-308, 5-347
Bowling
B Kumar 10-0-54-0
I Sharma 9-1-70-0
Vinay 9-0-73-2
Jadeja 10-0-72-0
Ashwin 8-0-50-1
Yuvraj 4-0-35-0

India
Rohit not out 141
Dhawan c Haddin b Faulkner 95
Kohli not out 100
Extras: (lb 5, w 21) 26
Total (1 wicket; 43.3 overs) 362
Fall of wickets: 1-176
Bowling
Johnson 9-1-68-0
McKay 7-0-64-0
Watson 5-0-47-0
Doherty 10-0-70-0
Maxwell 5.3-0-48-0

Faulkner 7-0-60-1