WARANGAL: Four persons were arrested for attempting to sell antique property — a box of gold ornaments — they unearthed recently from near the Ganapeshwaralayam temple at Mulugu Ghanpur in Jayashankar Bhupalapalli district.
The men found the box of jewellery about 300 metres outside the mud wall of the Ganapeshwaralayam while digging the earth near the Erramma-gadda lake. Some pieces of gold chains, two bracelets and a few pieces of gold sheets were inside the box.
The market value of the gold was put at Rs 13 lakh. The law requires that such antique finds are reported to police immediately, the men decided to sell them.
The four arrested – all locals — were K. Srini-vas Reddy, Mohan Reddy, G. Sudhakar and Poshala Kishore, while Bhadraiah is absconding.
“We came to know of this while they were trying to sell the ornaments. The box and much of the ornaments were then seized from them. The ornaments weighed 426 grams. They have given about 100 grams of jewellery to a goldsmith to melt them down and we are yet to recover that,” said Mulugu DSP Dakshina Murthy.
He said archaeology department officials had examined the box and jewellery which are now with the police. “We will hand them over to the department though the court,” he said.
Dr D. Ramulu Naik from the department of archaeology and museums and archaeology consultant S.S. Ranga-charyulu inspected the site where the digging took place. They said the copper box in which the ornaments were found was damaged. The lid and the bottom were missing.
“A copper box does not usually oxidise. Since it has been underground for hundreds of years, it got damaged. From this we can confirm that the treasure trove is of historic value and needs to be preserved as antiques. We will submit a report,” he said.
