Meet man who claims to be owner of Taj Mahal, he is Aurangzeb’s…, lives in…

Prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy, a Hyderabad native, who claims to be the sixth-generation heir of last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, has claimed to be the 'owner' of the Taj Mahal.

Amid the raging debate surrounding the Mughal rule in India, a Hyderabad man has come forward, claiming to be the ‘owner’ of the iconic Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, built by 17th century Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his doting wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

‘Owner’ of the Taj Mahal

The man in question is Prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy, a Hyderabad native, who claims to be the sixth-generation heir of last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. Prince Tucy, who is the Mutawalli, or caretaker of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb’s grave, claims he is the “rightful owner” of the Taj Mahal, because he is the last living Mughal in India with direct blood ties to Bahadur Shah Zafar, and descended from Shah Jahan, who built the iconic monument.

Prince Tucy has even submitted his DNA reports to the courts to prove his Mughal ancestry and alleged ownership of the Taj Mahal.

Prince Tucy and controversies

Notably, this is not the first time the alleged royal heir has hogged headlines for the wrong reasons. Previously, Tucy has also claimed ownership of the land upon which Babri Masjid stood and Ram Mandir was built, claiming it was a property issue, and he was the true owner because of his alleged descendancy from Mughal king Babur.

“We have issued an order to Waqf board, that it is not their property. It is a property issue and if turns out to be Babur’s property, then we are the owners of it. And, as the owner of the property, we don’t have any issue with the Ram temple being built there. Not only will I present a golden brick, I will also hand over the entire land for construction of the temple,” he had said in an interview.

Prince Tucy also challenged Rajasthan Deputy CM and BJP leader Princess Diya Kumari, who in 2019 had claimed to have documents of the Taj Mahal, to show them to him, if she was a “true Rajput”.

“If you do have the documents kept in your pothikhana, show them. If you have even a drop of Rajput blood within, show those documents,” he had asked.

More recently, amid the controversy surrounding Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and the subsequent vandalism of his tomb in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Tucy filed a plea to the President of India, requesting her to pass the orders to Government of India or the State Government for the protection of monument/grave of Aurangzeb Alamgir.

Royal ‘fakers’

Its pertinent to note that this is not first that someone has claimed royal ancestry to lay claim to property of long-dead kings and queens. A recent example is the infamous Malcha Mahal case, where a woman claimed to be Begum Wilayat Mahal, the descendant of the Nawab of Awadh. Her claims were later proven false.

However, the key difference between earlier cases and that of Prince Tucy, is that he has submitted his DNA profile to back his claim in the court of law.

Incidentally, there is a real documented descendant of Bahadur Shah Zafar living in India, but despite her royal ancestry, the destitute woman named Sultana Begum, lives a life of abject poverty and hardships in the slums of Kolkata, West Bengal.