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Thief Used Nizam’s Gold Tiffin Box To Eat Every Day: Police

Hyderabad: A week after valuable antique items were stolen from the Nizam Museum in the old city here, the Hyderabad Police today arrested two suspects in connection with the case here and recovered the stolen articles from them.

The three-tier tiffin box worth several crores may not have been used by the Nizam, but one of the thieves used it every day to have food, revealed the Hyderabad police.

Police said the two cat burglars, wearing masks, broke into the museum last week through a ventilator and decamped with the valuables from the showcase. The sleuths of Commissioner’s Task Force and South Zone Team, Hyderabad, nabbed the duo and recovered stolen antique golden items —- a three-tier gold tiffin box studded with diamonds and rubies weighing 1950 grams, a gold cup and saucer studded with precious stones weighing 172 gram and a gold tea spoon weighing about 14 gram.

The stolen articles were kept on display in Nizam’s Museum at Purani Haveli, an 18th century structure built by then VI Nizam Mir Mahbub Ali Khan as an extension of Masarat Mahal. The museum was opened to public on February 18, 2000, by the trust headed by Prince Muffakham Jah, younger grandson of the last Nizam. The museum showcases the fascinating collection of gifts that the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan received on his silver jubilee celebrations.

The accused were identified as Mohd Ghouse Pasha alias Khooni Ghouse, 23, resident of Chinthalmet under Rajendra Nagar mandal of Ranga Reddy District and Mohd Mubeen, 24, welder residing at Wadi-e-Mahmood, Rajendra Nagar. On the day of offence, they carried with them three screw drivers a cutting plier, a nail puller, ten hack-saw blades and a rope for removing ventilator and getting into the museum from the top. They also purchased hand gloves to avoid finger prints and masks to avoid identification. They also avoided carrying mobile phone to the place of offence.

The duo planned to enter into Museum through the routes devoid of CCTV cameras, but failed to get into the museum. Finally they reached the museum through Mata-ki-khidki side on the Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle of Mobeen and got captured in CCTV footages. The route was selected by them at the time of reccee. They reached the place of offence easily by identifying the “arrow” marks on the parapet wall. The burglars removed the ventilator with the instruments they carried with them. They also damaged the camera inside the museum which was erected right beneath that ventilator.

Mobeen who entered into the museum, took out the Gold Tiffin box, Gold Cup & Saucer and Gold spoon from the showcase and put them in a bag and climbed up using the rope, which was pulled by Ghouse from other end. Later both of them exited from the museum through the same route used for entry.

To avoid being tracked by police in CCTV cameras, they avoided main roads and moved through by-lanes haphazardly and reached Muthangi of Sangareddy District. At Muthangi ORR, they changed their route and took to service road along the ORR and travelled towards Hyderabad. As they felt insecure to carry the stolen property and feared of being caught by Police, they dug a pit in an open area near Dairy farm area of Rajendra Nagar and kept the entire stolen property in it. Later they again took the same route and reached Zaheerabad. At Zaheerabad their motorcycle broke down. They abandoned the motorcycle nearby the bus stand and reached Mumbai through public transport system.

At Mumbai, they searched for possible buyers in the domestic market. Mobeen through his international relations also tried to find possible buyers abroad, but in vain. Finally they returned to Hyderabad on Monday after all their attempts to dispose of the stolen property got exhausted.

On a tip off, the sleuths of South Zone Task Force and Mirchowk Police apprehended the accused in the hillocks near Himayathsagar and recovered the entire stolen property. (NSS)