By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem
Last week I wrote about our trip to Hyderabad and the theft of the Nizam’s Golden Tiffin Carrier from his private museum there just a few hours after my wife and I had visited the place. Well, this week I’m writing about how it was recovered by the Hyderabad Police in a surprisingly short time of exactly one week. Yes, all the stolen artefacts have been recovered...without the filmy-style hot chase and the shoot-out that might have been expected in such an operation! Nevertheless, the Hyderabad Police should be complimented on its efficiency in solving the sensational theft and recovering all the high value articles intact. Yes, although this crime did not find much coverage in the media that we are exposed to here, it did cause quite a sensation in and around Hyderabad for the sheer heritage value of the stolen objects. They were a part of the history of Hyderabad and its erstwhile rulers, the Nizams. I was almost certain that this theft would remain an unsolved crime, consigned to dusty files stacked in Police record room cupboards for many years to come. But thankfully my fears did not come true. The theft was not the handiwork of any cartel of art thieves but only of two young, unseasoned desperadoes. They made an unsuccessful bid to dispose off their ill-gotten booty during just one overnight visit to Mumbai and returned to Hyderabad only to be confronted by the local Police who were waiting to nab them! It is said that to avoid being caught these two never used mobile phones during their criminal act and the Police zeroed in on them through a tip off even as they themselves were still sifting through clues and bits and pieces of evidence. One very interesting fact that has emerged from their arrest is that the duo certainly ate their food a few times from the million dollar lunch box while it was in their possession perhaps just to relive the richness of the Nizams! However, no one among the many trustees and custodians of the Nizam’s museum are able to say with any degree of certainty whether the Nizam himself actually ate out of it at any time! For all you know, the Nizam who received the two kilogram dinner set from some nobleman, who sadly remains unknown now, probably never ate out of it simply putting it away among his treasures immediately! I say this as Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh and last official Nizam of Hyderabad although considered the richest man in the world during his time and who was portrayed thus on the cover of TIME magazine on 22nd, February, 1937, was also known to be very frugal, almost to the point of miserliness, in his personal life.
