Chamarajanagar, Dec 4: At least 729 gold coins have been recovered by police from the toilet pit diggers at Haradanahalli village near Chamarajanagar.
The local police on Wednesday confiscated another 636 antique gold coins from daily wage workers who had hidden them. On Monday, as many as 93 gold coins were recovered by the police following a complaint against the labourers.
When interrogated, the four workers – Kumar, Suresh, Sundar, and Nanjunda– confessed to have another 106, 168, 179 and 183 gold coins each, said District Superintendent of Police S Rangaswamy.
Siddique, a resident, asked four labourers on Sunday to excavate land to make a pit as an outlet for a toilet at his house in the village. The labourers were given the task of digging out eight feet of the land, but were "forced" to stop at five feet when they came across a pot.
When the curious workers opened the pot, they were surprised to see gold coins in it. They covered the pit with the dug-out mud telling the owner that they had some personal issues and could not work that day.
They returned in the evening, collected a few coins and went to nearby Chamarajanagar. One of the labourers approached a pawnbroker saying that he had a coin that belonged to his forefathers and wanted to sell it. The pawnbroker had a look, and sent him away saying that the coin was not an original one and it would not fetch him any money. The labourer went back to his village.
The pawnbroker, however, called up the police and informed them of the incident. Police rushed to the spot on Monday in search of the labourers. The labourers initially denied finding any such coins. Sustained questioning led to them admitting to finding just eight coins. Further interrogation led to the revelation of the pot with 43 coins.
The police informed the archaeological department officials who visited the spot. The officials said that the site of the find was next to the Venupolaswamy temple, which was popular in earlier times. They realised that there could be more such coins in the vicinity. Further digging in the neighbourhood produced a further 50 coins believed to be of the time of Hyder Ali. The police suspected the labourers to have hoarded more coins and had hence arrested and interrogated them. Finally on Wednesday they handed over further 636 gold coins to the police.
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