THE HYDERABAD HEIST: The Untold Story of India’s Biggest Museum Theft

Category Non-Fiction
Format Paperback
Imprint Rupa
Price 395

ISBN: 978-93-5520-984-9
Pages: 216 pages
Date: 5th January 2023

ABOUT THIS BOOK

3 September 2018. Citizens of India woke up to the sensational news of a multimillion-dollar
theft in the Nizam’s Museum, Hyderabad. The theft of a diamond-studded, intricately designed
gold box and other artefacts speckled with emeralds and rubies caused a national and international sensation. This was no ordinary burglary. It was an assault on the heritage and culture of the people of Hyderabad and India.
Prince Muffakham Jah of Hyderabad, who was in London at that time, personally requested the
Commissioner of Police, Mr Anjani Kumar, to investigate the case on priority. Hundreds of police officers were pressed into action to recover the stolen objets d’art. Unfortunately for them, the thieves had been smart and left little evidence behind them. Most clues that the police uncovered during the investigation led to more confusion rather than any conclusion.

The Commissioner personally led an elite team to investigate this theft and recover the items. He knew that recovering the stolen assets would be a challenging proposition, given that, historically, hardly any items stolen from museums across the world had ever been recovered. The Hyderabad Heist is the story of how the Hyderabad Police worked diligently, made the most out of the little evidence available, and raced against time to recover the artifacts before these could be smuggled abroad and be lost forever.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Sharmishtha Shenoy is the author of the Vikram Rana Mystery series, which include
Vikram Rana Investigates, A Season for Dying, Behind the Scenes, Fatal Fallout, Silent Witness,
A Thousand Scars: Book 1 and A Thousand Scars: Book 2. She has also published a book of short stories, Quirky Tales, and the novel Murder in the Chowdhury Palace.

Sharmishtha has an M. Tech degree from the University of Reading, Great Britain. Before starting to write, she was an IT professional and worked for TCS, Satyam, Infosys and Microsoft. She is a big foodie and enjoys biryani (both Hyderabadi and Awadhi versions) and rasgullas, like most Bengalis. She is also a lusty bathroom singer. Though she is happily married to Mr Shenoy in real life, in her fantasy world she is wedded to her fictional creation Vikram Rana.

You can read more of her writing on her blog: https://sharmishthashenoy.com/bulletin-board/.

Sharmishtha lives in Hyderabad. You can reach her at sharmishtha.shenoy@gmail.com.