Thaindian News

Hyderabad, May 3 (IANS) Hasan Ali Khan, already accused of money laundering, has been booked for smuggling antiques out of the country and keeping them in his bank lockers in Switzerland, police said Tuesday.

The smuggled items included those belonging to the family of Nizams, the rulers of erstwhile Hyderabad state, the police said.

Central Crime Station (CCS), a wing of the Hyderabad city police, registered the case on a complaint by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Hyderabad Police Commissioner A.K. Khan told reporters that the ED named Naseer Baig, Kashinath Kapoor and Duleep Anand Raj as the other accused.

The ED, which met the police commissioner, lodged the complaint with the CCS on the basis of Hasan Ali Khan’s statement before interrogators.

The three accused reportedly sold antiques stolen from the famous Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad to Hasan Ali.

“We are trying to identify these persons and the investigations are also on regarding how they got the antiques and whether the items sold by them really come under the definition of antiques,” Khan said.

The CCS booked cases against Hasan Ali and others under the Indian Penal Code for cheating, criminal breach of trust, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy. They were also booked for smuggling of artifacts under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.

The antiques were reportedly stolen from the museum between 1991 and 1993.

After receiving them from his contacts in Hyderabad, Hasan Ali allegedly kept them in a bank lockers in Switzerland.

The museum is the world’s largest one-man collection of arts and artifacts. The seventh Nizam’s Prime Minister Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, known popularly in history as Salar Jung III, had acquired the largest collection of artifacts, books and manuscripts.