Diamond-studded Gold Tiffin Box And Gold Teacup Stolen at Nizam’s Museum in Hyderabad

The employees of the museum found about the theft at around 5 am when the museum was open on Monday.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Kanimozhi Sudhakar

Updated: September 4, 2018, 8:46 AM IST

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The employees of the museum found the theft at around 9 am when the museum was open on Monday.

Hyderabad: An expensive gold tiffin box studded with diamond and a golden teacup allegedly used by Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, the last Nizam of Hyderabad was stolen by burglars at the Nizam’s Museum at Purani Haveli. The robbery took place after Sunday midnight when the burglars cleverly found their way into the closed museum through the ventilator before stealing and fleeing from the place.

As many as 10 Hyderabad police teams were formed to nab the burglars. The premises of the museum has been sealed by the police to prevent the erosion of the evidence. The seamlessly executed crime came into light when the museum authorities alerted the police about the missing antiques from the display cupboard. The stolen valuables are estimated to fetch up to Rs 50 crore at an international auction. The golden tiffin box is three-tiered and weighs around 2 kg. Moreover, the tiffin box has diamonds and rubies embedded in it.

Hyderabad: A tiffin box, saucer, cup & spoon made of gold were stolen from Nizam Museum (HEH Nizam’s Museum) in Mir Chowk Police Station limits yesterday. A case has been registered, investigation is underway and search for the culprits is underway. pic.twitter.com/wz0ivkhzNL

— ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

After examining the crime scene, police found out that the burglars had entered the room through the wooden ventilator. Moreover, the burglars had used a rope to scale the wall which is almost 15 to 18 feet tall. Further investigation revealed that the burglars seemed to have a good knowledge about the layout of the room because they had twisted the CCTV camera present beneath the ventilator in such a way that they were not captured in the footage.

Apparently, the burglars had exited the museum along the same route they had used as the entry. The employees of the museum found about the theft at around 9 am when the museum was open on Monday.

Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar and other senior officers who checked into the museum on Monday evening suspect the theft to be an inside job by someone previously employed in the museum. The scanned CCTV footage also revealed a man entering through the ventilator. However, the face of the man was blurred.

A report by The Times of India quoted the assistant commissioner of police (Mirchowk division) B Anand as saying, “After registering a case, a dog squad and clues team were pressed into service. Already 10 teams are on the lookout for the accused. We are told the missing articles belong to VII Nizam.”