'Bharat Ratna' Ustad Bismillah Khan's shehnai theft case cracked, grandson arrested

Varanasi: In a breakthrough in the 'Bharat Ratna' Ustad Bismillah Khan's shehnai theft case, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Varanasi Police on Tuesday arrested three persons including his grandson and two jewellers on Tuesday.

According to The Times of India, STF personnel caught Ustad's grandson Najre Hasan, while he was trying to flee the city.

He was under surveillance for quite some time. The STF also recovered three out of the four silver made shenais, which were melted by the jewellers. 

The city police recovered 1.066 kg of melted silver. Ironically, the world renowned Ustad's priceless shehnais were sold off at a petty amount of Rs 17,000 only

SSP STF Amit Pathak said that Hasan confessed that he had stolen the shenais to repay the money he had borrowed from some people during his interrogation.

He had sold the shehnais to jewellers Shankarlal Seth and Sujit Seth of Piyari locality.

The STF recovered Rs 4,200 from him and later arrested the jewellers and recovered the melted silver from them. 

An FIR was lodged at Chowk police station for further legal action.

The three silver shenais were gifted to Ustad by former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Congress MP Kapil Sibal.

Maestro's shehnais were stolen from his son Kazim Hussain's house, located in Chahmam area. Kazim lodged an FIR against unidentified persons with Chowk police station on December 5. 

In his complaint, Kazim said that he found the lock broken on returning from their old house situated in Hadaha Sarai locality. All the shehnais of his father were missing, Najre Hassan is Kazim Hussain's son.