Hyderabad: The police have formed 10 teams to arrest those involved in the theft of two antiques from the Nizam’s Silver Jubilee Museum in Hyderabad.
Two burglars entered the museum in the wee hours of Monday through a air vent and stole a three-layer diamond-studded gold tiffin box and a tea cup that was used by the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan.
Police say they have found CCTV camera footage and some other clues that can help in arresting the thieves soon. “Ten teams are working on the case and we are hopeful of a breakthrough,” said Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar who visited the Museum located in Purani Haveli Palace.
Police believe that the crime was an insider job as the culprits appeared familiar with the design of the museum and where exactly the two precious items were on display in third gallery on the first floor.
“They reached the roof of the museum from an adjoining building with the help of a ladder, entered the building through a ventilator and came down using a knotted rope,” a police official probing the case.
The CCTV footage shows only a part of the face of one of the thieves while the other had his face covered.
Probe team found that the CCTV camera focused on the two antiques was tilted away. “This also shows that the culprits were fully aware of the topography of the hall,” officials said.
Police was questioning the museum staff and three of the security agency personnel who were on duty at the time of the theft.
They told police that the museum was locked on Sunday evening and when they reopened next morning they found the glass of a showcase broken and the two antiques missing.
The clues team has also found an iron rod that was apparently used to break the glass.
Mir Chowk Assistant Commissioner of Police, Babu Chouhan, said the negligence on the part of the museum authorities and the security agency was responsible for the theft as they were still using old cameras and many of them were not functioning.
According to Mohammad Safiullah, an authority on Nizam’s heritage, the two artefacts could fetch at least Rs500 million (Dh25.65 million) on the international market. “But the fear is that the thieves will melt the artefacts to remove gold and diamonds and they will be lost forever.”
The two artefacts are part of a priceless collection comprising of 450 antiques at the HEH Nizam’s Silver Jubilee Museum. Most of them were gifts presented to the 7th Nizam in 1937 on the occasion of silver jubilee of his coronation. Some articles also belonged to his father, the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan. The world’s largest wardrobe, used by Mahbub Ali, is also part of the museum. It also has precious jewellery and swords and scabbards.
The museum, opened in 2000, is under Nizam’s Jubilee Pavillion Trust of Nawab Mufakkham Jah, younger grandson of the sixth Nizam. It is located in Purani Haveli Palace, which is controlled by the Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning, which is run by the eldest grandson Mukarram Jha.
