Book Review | A captivating account of India's biggest museum heist

When I read The Hyderabad Heist by Sharmishtha Shenoy I was dismayed by the security arrangement at the Nizam’s Museum at Purani Haveli, Hyderabad. The first thought that struck me was, shouldn’t there have been a tighter security in a museum that displayed and housed more than 450 artefacts belonging to the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. The Nizam was once considered the richest man in the world.

Though Shenoy’s book is a non-fiction account of India’s biggest museum theft, it reads like a thriller albeit minus the adrenaline rush of an actual thriller.

The book starts with a foreword by Anjani Kumar, former commissioner, Hyderabad police. Kumar was assigned the tough task of nabbing the criminals and recovering the artefacts. His task was akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

The prologue depicts the actual occurrence, a petty criminal, Badshah, and his accomplice Ghulam (who had actually masterminded the theft) enter the museum late on September 3, 2018, around 3.30 am. They jumped into the terrace of the museum through the adjoining terraces; this part of Hyderabad had houses sitting cheek by jowl. After breaking the wooden ventilator which they had marked in one of their recces, one thief jumps into the museum via a rope and steals a diamond-studded golden tiffin box, a jewel studded cup and saucer set and a spoon studded with rubies.

The way the two petty thieves planned the robbery, twisting the angle of the CCTV camera near the ventilator so that their image isn’t captured on camera, wearing masks and gloves, right down to tonsuring their heads, and taking with them a change of clothes and a mobile minus its SIM card, showed their thorough planning. When we read of heists we can never imagine the scale of planning the criminals have done.

When Hyderabad city police commissioner Anjani Kumar is assigned the case, he and his team first search the museum for clues. They see the arrows marked near the ventilator on the terrace and another arrow marked on the terrace. Kumar has his first clue, the thief has masonry experience. CCTV footage of nearby places reveals their second clue.

Kumar’s first priority was to ensure that the artefacts weren’t smuggled out from Hyderabad. He set up a task force assigning various duties to his teams. The police force had an arduous task; how were they to find the thieves with no information on their hands?

Shenoy highlights the police and informer connection; how the police tap its connections to the nab criminals. With several chapters based on Ghulam and Badshah, Shenoy gives readers a peep into the mindset of these petty thieves who have no clue about the actual value of their stolen items. I’m assuming that Roy must have interviewed the thieves.

At places, I noticed a bit of exaggeration creeping into the narrative, that Shenoy had used what we call poetic licence, especially when it concerned the thieves or the paragraphs describing the different members of Kumar’s team. The book also felt like an ode to Kumar.

The grand finale wherein Kumar and his team plan an elaborate hoax to nab the criminals had me on tenterhooks. This book makes one appreciative of what the police do.

The Hyderabad Heist

By Sharmishtha Shenoy

Rupa

pp. 199, Rs.395