Late musician Ustad Bismillah Khan’s grandson, Nazre Hasan alias Shadab, was arrested by a Special Task Force on Tuesday for stealing the maestro’s silver shehnais. Police said they had found the instruments, too, but in a melted form, and had also arrested two jewellers in connection with the theft, according to Hindustan Times.
Five of the Bharat Ratna winner’s shenais were reported missing on December 5 when his son Kazim Hussain had filed an FIR with the Varanasi Police. Other souvenirs and gifts were also reported stolen. Hasan, however, had confessed to stealing only four shehnais, Senior Superintendent of Police (STF) Amit Pathak told Hindustan Times.
Hasan had sold three silver shenais and a wooden one with a silver base to jewellers Shankar Lal Seth and his son Sujit Seth for Rs 17,000, Pathak said, adding that they had recovered melted silver weighing around 1 kg and the wooden frame of the instrument from them.
Three of the silver shehnais were gifted to Bismillah Khan by former prime minister Narasimha Rao, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and former union minister Kapil Sibal. Hussain had said, “One of these shehnais was very special. My father used to play it on the fifth and seventh days of Muharram.”
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