UP's 'gold digger' saint passes away

Unnao (UP):  Sadhu Shobhan Sarkar, the saint who had sent the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) team on a gold digging spree in 2013 in the Dhundia Khera village of Unnao district, died on Wednesday.

Shobhan Sarkar, also known as Suryabhan Tiwari, a lesser known god-man from the Shobhan village in the Shivali area of Kanpur, in October 2013, had claimed that he had dreamt a gold reserve of 1,000 tonnes was buried under the palace of Rao Ram Baksh Singh, a 19th century chieftain in Unnao's Daundia Khera.

Sarkar, popularly known as a gold digger, had told reporters, "It was the blood of my gurus which turned into gold. The blood drops had fallen on the earth when the mosquitoes had bitten my gurus."

"Raja Rao Ram Baksh had appeared in my dream on a white horse and requested me to liberate him from the cycle of birth and death. He is the custodian of the treasure," he had said.

One of his disciples, Om Awasthi, met the then Union Minister of State for agriculture and Food Processing Charan Das Mahant, and convinced him about Sarkar's spiritual powers.

A few days later, an order was issued to excavate the site.

The ASI teams started digging the area and thousands thronged the site to witness the emergence of gold.

However, after several days of digging when no trace of gold was found in the area, the operation was called off.

Shobhan Sarkar lost much of his spiritual sheen after the incident, though his devotees continued to believe in him.