No decision on excavation at Qutub Minar: India's culture minister

India's Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy tonight (May 22, 2022) denied media reports claiming that the Archaeological Survey of India would be conducting an excavation at the iconic Qutub Minar complex Delhi.

"No such decision has been taken," ANI quoted Reddy as saying, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

Some reports have claimed that the Ministry of Culture instructed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct the excavation and iconography of idols at Qutub Minar to ascertain facts about the structure.

As per the reports, an ex-ASI officer claimed that the Qutub Minar was not built by Qutb al-Din Aibak, and was actually built by Raja Vikramaditya to study the direction of the Sun.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesman Vinod Bansal had recently claimed that the Qutub Minar was actually "Vishnu Stambh".