Nizam Museum burglar wanted to steal Holy Quran in gold casing but stopped after hearing Azaan

HYDERABAD: The two thieves who were arrested by the city police for heist of precious antiques from the Nizam Museum at Purana Haveli admitted to the police that they wanted to steal the Holy Quran in Golden casing, but they withdrew at the last minute as they heard the sound of Azaan(call of prayer) from nearby mosque.
The modus operandi of the duo Mohammed Ghouse Pasha and Mohammed Mubeen of Rajendrangar is similar to museum heist plot in Bollywood films. Interestingly the duo had eaten from the three-tier Golden Tiffin Box, and with the gold spoon, they looted while it was in their procession. The theft took place on September 3 and the accused were arrested on Tuesday. The police recovered the three-tier golden tiffin box, a cup and saucer and a golden spoon from them.

Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar said, "Irony is that I don’t know whether the last Nizam Osman Ali Khan had ever used the tiffin box to eat his dinner or lunch but the two criminals for the last two days were eating in them. One of them identified as Mubeen lived in Saudi Arabia for two half years. He was in a Saudi jail for involvement in a criminal case, and he got in touch with international gangs. He was deported to India. Later he went to the Museum and wanted to commit the offence. After the heist, the accused went to Mumbai to sell the antiques to the international market. They failed in that as they didn’t find the buyer immediately."

He added, "During the interrogation, they mentioned that they wanted to steal the Quran with a gold casing and it is very precious. By that time they had stolen tiffin box, cup and saucers and they were moving towards another almirah which is 10 feet away, and it has Holy Quran with the golden casing. When they were about to open, they heard Azaan from nearby Masjid. The sound of Azaan scared them. Perhaps they don’t want to pick it up at that time and left the place."

Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar said, "Initially we were told the worth of the stolen items would be Rs 35 crore. When we checked with the curators of other museums, they said in the international market the worth would be Rs 130 crore. A museum theft of this kind is rare in India. Some of my senior colleagues told me that the this is similar to Mona Lisa theft from Louvre museum and Bangkok Museum theft and it took eight to 10 years to detect those case. The clues were misleading initially as they were veterans and tried to divert the investigation. They were carrying a mobile phone, and it didn't have a sim card, so our investigation went in the wrong direction initially and spent a lot of time on call data analysis. The combination of Tech and human intelligence has resulted in cracking the case finally."

"The accused damaged the two CCTV cameras and diverted the focus to avoid being caught," said Anjani. Interestingly the accused initially hidden in the ground by digging a pit in Rajendranagar to avoid police attention.