Battle royale: Tipu’s kin vs Wakf Board

The great-grandchildren of the ruler, who fought the British, are fighting for rights to manage the Gumbaz.

The family is undergoing an ordeal as the building lacks basic facilities. For women members of the family, the ordeal is even more strenuous. They manage with makeshift bathrooms with sarees covered from all sides.Asif Ali, his wife Fazal Begum and their sons Fahaz Alid, Muhamed Alhid Ali Shah and daughter Tamanah Begum, charge the Government with giving them a rawdeal.

“We are not claiming ownership of the Gumbaz, we only want the authority to manage it,” Ali says. He intends to build a technical college with the income accrued from the shops, malls and other business establishments around the Gumbaz for the poor children of the locality.

By denying the power to manage the Gumbaz to the descendants of Tipu, they have insulted the great warrior, he says.

Ali said vesting them with their due power would not be a problem as the property does not come under the Archaeological Department and was being managed by the Wakf Board. He also charged the Wakf Board with marring the beauty of the place by constructing a building inside the Gumbaz.

Ali says he was a minor when his father Ahmed Shah died. His father left behind a will stating that the properties of the family should be restored to the male members when they attain maturity.

The Wakf Board was authorised to manage the properties until such time.But the Wakf Board, instead went back on the agreement andsold the properties worth Rs 1,600 crore, he says.

He said these properties were purchased by Tipu’s son at Calcutta’s Chaurangi, Dalhousie, Kalighat and other places when he was exiled from the Fort Town.

“When the family protested, We were thrown out of our house,” Ali said. When they moved the High Court, the court ruled in favour of the family, but the Government went in for an appeal.

Tipu’s son’s will states that the property should be vested with male children and the income from the properties should be utilised for religious purpose.

Ali says that he has already approached the State Home Minister Roshan Baig who has assured action against the Wakf Board.

Baig has, however, ruled out handing over the property to Tipu’s family.