Panna: Motilal Prajapati, aged around 50 years, is a daily-wage laborer and the hunt for treasure started began two generations ago when his grandfather took a small piece of land on lease basis and the area was located near the mining area in diamond-rich Panna in the state of Madhya Pradesh. But all attempts to find even a single diamond failed. But the next generation did not left hope and the digging went on one generation after the other but in vain.

Loans taken for the work to be done kept on increasing, but Mr. Prajapati never ended his grandfather’s mission. It was only a month and a half ago that Mr. Prajapati and his brother Raghuveer began digging near the area of Krishna Kalyanpur in Panna with the hope that they may at least find a diamond this time. They reaped their hard-work of generations on Tuesday, when the family of Prajapati dug out a 42.59 carat diamond, valued at around Rs. 1.5 crore.

As per the records, this diamond is said to be the biggest one to be dug out in Panna since 1961 and ranks second biggest in all of Panna’s history. The biggest diamond of Panna was dug out by Rasool Mohammad of Matuatola village on October 15, 1961. The weight of the gem was 44.55 carat.

“I am extremely happy. After almost one-and-a-half months of hard work, I managed to find a diamond, that too worth crores of rupees. I have to repay a loan of 5 lakhs. This diamond will solve all my problems,” Mr Prajapati said, visibly elated

Mr. Prajapati also said that the newly found diamond will be able to fulfill all the missions taken up during his previous generations and will ensure the well-being of future generations.

“For three generations – from my grandfather to myself – we have been taking land in the mining area on lease. But we never succeeded in finding a diamond. I will spend the money on the education of my children,” he said.

But the exact value of the gem is yet to be determined by the experts, which was found by Mr. Prajapati, but as per the rough estimate, the diamond may fetch them somewhere around Rs. 1.5 crore to Rs. 2.5 crore.

After Mr. Prajapati found the diamond, he handed it over to the diamond officer of Panna.

“Mr Prajapati reached the diamond officer’s office this afternoon to deposit the gem. This 42.59-carat diamond is yet to be valued. It would be auctioned in January next year and the proceeds will be given to Mr Prajapati after deduction of government royalty and taxes,” Anupam Singh, valuer with the diamond officer, said on Tuesday

This is not a single story, but like Prajapati’s family, hundreds of people come here at Panna to find their fortune of luck and carry out shallow-pit mining to search for diamonds.

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