In the end, Ustad Bismillah Khan’s prized shehnais were reduced to a lump of silver and wood residue, after his grandson who allegedly stole the instruments, sold them to a couple of goldsmiths for Rs. 17,000.
A special task force of the Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested Nazre Hasan alias Shadab, the late Bharat Ratna awardee’s grandson for the theft.
Police also arrested goldsmiths Shankar Seth and Sujit Seth to whom Shadab sold the instruments.
Four shehnais, including the one that the Ustad played on special occasions, along with a kilo of melted silver were recovered, police said.
The shehnais included three made of silver gifted to Bismillah Khan by the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao; Congress leader Kapil Sibal; and the former Bihar Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad. The fourth silver-and-wood instrument was his prized possession and the musician would play it on Muharram every year.
The jewellers had melted down the silver in the three shehnais leaving only wooden frames. Police said the silver-and-wood shehnai was recovered with its metal layer stripped.
The theft took place last month in the house of Bismillah Khan’s son Kazim Hussain — Shadab’s father — in Varanasi. Additional SP, STF, S. Anand, whose team cracked the case, said the motive for the act was money.
“[Shadab] is unemployed and had shown such a tendency,” he said.
While the family had reported that five shehnais and other memorabilia were stolen, Mr. Anand said the accused confessed to stealing only four. “ Prima facie and after visiting the scene of crime, we concluded that it was done by an insider. We kept a close watch on the family members. The grandson was the prime suspect. We interrogated him and he confessed,” Mr. Anand told The Hindu .
Bismillah Khan’s family had been demanding a museum to preserve the maestro’s instruments and memorabilia.
Kazim Hussain was not available for comment when contacted over the phone. A female relative said he was out and not reachable. His family had shifted from their ancestral house in the Sarai Harha area to a new location in Dalmandi recently.
On November 30, 2015, the family visited the ancestral house to attend a religious ceremony, and when they returned home, they found the lock broken and items missing. An FIR was then registered by Kazim Hussain, who is today the caretaker of Bismillah Khan’s articles.
As a maestro who gave the shehnai, a wooden wind instrument, a global presence, Bismillah Khan died in 2006.
