Even as the nation was still to recover from the shock and amusement at the discovery of prized treasure from the underground vaults of a temple in Kerala, a new treasure trove is believed to have been found beneath the cells of Tihar jail.
Primary excavations since last night have already thrown up valuables worth rupees 2 lakh crores, more than double the worth of antiquities estimated to have been found at the ancient Shri Padmnabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Cash, contracts, licenses, share certificates, and precious commodities like gold, gems, petrol, and onions have been found beneath various cells,” Subramanian Swamy, a senior member of the excavation team spearheading the digging efforts informed.
This treasure chest that was recovered from beneath the cell of Kanimozhi (released accused in @G scam), is under dispute as Kanimozhi claimed that it belonged to A Raja, who had gifted it her on her arrival at Tihar jail.
The excavation at Tihar will continue for the next one week as there are too many cells in the jail and experts believe that the final worth of the treasure could be much more than what has been found till now.
“We also found stuffs like hockey sticks, pole vaults, fencing swords, etc. beneath the cell of Suresh Kalmadi (released accused in Games scam), but we are not counting them as part of the original treasure,” Ranjeet Singh, another member of the excavation team informed, “We believe that these things were stored as weapons needed to protect the treasure.”
Ranjeet revealed that initially the team had to face a lot of opposition when they first arrived to dig at Tihar jail, with inmates insisting that the team produced the required government orders and sanction papers to carry out such an operation on Sunday, a day when jail inmates relax together, watch movies, crack jokes, and eat outside food ordered from McDonalds.
But the jail inmates had to back down as the excavation is being carried out on the orders of the Supreme Court of India, which gave a green signal to the operation after Subramanian Swamy filed a series of petitions citing a similar operation underway at the Kerala temple.
“I am planning to file more petitions to undertake similar excavations at other high profile prisons of India, and if possible, at 10, Janpath,” Swamy said, stoking a controversy.
However, Swamy refused to draw parallels between the two, denying that the treasure found at the Kerala temple was stashed away from the public by the royal Travancore family.
“The treasure at Padmnabhaswamy temple was hoarded by Travancore kings to save it from the attackers and not the public, but this treasure at Tihar was hoarded by modern kings to save it from aam aadmi, whom they might be viewing as attackers,” Swamy claimed.
“If the ancient kings wanted to hide it from the general public, treasure would have been found below some temple in Switzerland,” Swamy argued, claiming that international relations between India and Switzerland dated back to the era of Travancore kings.
Swamy’s international spin to the treasure trove at the Kerala temple has already set the international alarm bells ringing with experts warning tensions between Israel, Palestine and Vatican over the issue of treasure that originally belonged to the Holy Temple of the Jews. The treasure, which was taken away by Roman attackers, is believed to be either in Vatican or in the modern West Bank controlled by Hamas.
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