Nobody in the world, except Vijay Mallya knows where the sword of Tipu Sultan is.
The London high court heard on Tuesday from the lawyer representing 13 Indian banks (who Mallya owes about Rs 9,000 crore) that apparently the liquor baron gave away the rare sword worth about 1.8 crores, in 2016 because his family told him it was bringing him bad luck. Mallya had picked up the sword for Rs 1.5 crore at a private auction in 2004.
The banks were attempting to convince the court that the freeze order on Mallya’s global assets should not be discharged.
One of Mallya’s former colleagues claimed that Mallya had earlier attempted to give it to a reputed museum for safekeeping after it was purchased. “The museum refused to take it as it was not clear as to how it could be preserved,” he said while adding that it was unclear what Mallya did with the sword after that.
A seventh-generation descendant of Tipu, Sahebzada Mansoor Ali Tipu, said that the family has been persistently trying to get in touch with Mallya in order to purchase it from him. “The sword is nowhere to be seen. Neither the small museum of Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatna nor any of the family members have it. Mallya never disclosed the location of the sword to anyone,” he said while adding that the family was ready to initiate legal action to bring it back to the country due to its historical and archaeological importance.