Police who are investigating the alleged theft of Nizams jewellery and antiques from the Salar Jung Museum by Pune-based stud farm owner, are now finding out whether the stolen articles belonged to some other city-based royal family.
City police, who are investigating the alleged theft of Nizams jewellery and antiques from the Salar Jung Museum here by Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, are now finding out whether the stolen articles belonged to some other city-based royal family.
This follows denial by the Salar Jung Museum (SJM) authorities yesterday that such a theft ever took place from the museum. They also told the investigators that no person by the name Nasir Baig - allegedly named by Khan - ever worked at SJM.
Following a complaint by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Crime Station of Hyderabad Police on May 2 lodged a case against Hasan Ali Khan and his aide Kashinath Tapuriah, a Kolkata businessman, both of whom are facing charges of money laundering.
Other accused in the theft case are Philip Anandraj, Nasir Baig, and Ram Bharoj Gupta, a Hyderabad-based jewellery shop owner.
Khan and others are accused of stealing jewellery belonging to the erstwhile Nizams of the princely state of Hyderabad and other artifacts from the SJM, and selling them for Rs50 lakh in overseas markets.
Khan reportedly confessed to the ED that he procured the articles and jewellery from Nasir Baig, who, Khan said, was the custodian of the SJM in 1992.
"After we wrote to the museum authorities, they told us that no person with the name Nasir Baig worked with them and they do not have any jewellery items of Nizams' on display," a police officer told PTI.
"Now we have to verify whether the allegedly stolen jewellery or antiques belonged to any other royal family."
According to the investigating officials, the jewellery belonging to Nizams was with the Nizam Trust, and not the Salar Jung Museum.
But the complaint stated that articles were stolen from the museum itself, and Baig passed them on to Hasan Ali Khan and others.
Police sources said that Khan might have claimed that articles belonged to Nizam family to jack up their prices in the international market.
The ED today filed charge sheet against Khan and Kashinath Tapuriah in the special court in Mumbai in the money laundering case.
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