Shafia Sakina (right) and Naqvia Zainab at Purana Haveli in Hyderabad. (PTI)

Hyderabad, Feb. 16: Two great-granddaughters of Hyderabad’s last ruler have demanded a share of his jewellery that has been divided among 300-odd descendants after the Centre bought a part of it.

Princesses Shafia Sakina and Naqvia Zainab, US citizens from Chicago, say they were “cheated” out of their inheritance, worth Rs 13.58 crore, from the seventh Nizam’s diamonds and ornaments.

Osman Ali Pasha, whom Time magazine had called the world’s richest man in 1937, ruled Hyderabad till 1948 and died in 1973 with his jewellery locked in one of the 28 trusts he had set up.

In 1998, his heirs tried to liquidate the trust and put up the jewellery, stored in the Bombay Mercantile Bank, for auction by Christie’s of London. But the Indian government stopped the auction.

The Centre bought 117 pieces of jewellery that it considered antique — including the famous Jacob diamond that is fabled to bring bad luck — for Rs 249 crore. After deducting the taxes, the government handed over Rs 217.3 crore to the eighth Nizam, Prince Mukkaram Jah.

The rest of the jewellery was distributed among the heirs listed with the trust. The process ended by 2002. Mukkaram sold part of his share to pay off his huge debts in Australia and London where businesses he ran had bombed.

Shafia and Naqvia, who were in Hyderabad recently, said their parents were not informed about the distribution and that no public notice was issued.

“How can the properties of the Nizam be distributed without intimation to us?” said the elder sister, Shafia, 24.

Sources said that unlike the rest of the Nizam’s property — such as his land and palaces — which were placed in 27 charitable trusts, his jewels were kept in a “personal” trust. The Nizam could give them away to whoever he wanted, and so only those listed as beneficiaries in the trust were entitled to a share of the jewellery.

The other 27 trusts were liquidated in 1998 and the Chicago sisters’ parents are said to have received their share.

Shafia and Naqvia have accused Mukkaram of misappropriation, cheating, trespass, intimidation, conspiracy, forgery and impersonation.

“He has even smuggled out a Mughal-period gold coin weighing 11.5kg (gifted by the emperor Jehangir to their ancestors) to an American bank,” Shafia said.

“We had filed a complaint with Mir Chowk police last year but no action has been taken,” she added.

Mukkaram recently lost an alimony suit in a family court here and had to pay his third wife, former Miss Turkey Manolya Onur, a huge compensation.

Many of the Nizam’s 310-odd heirs live in run-down bungalows and palaces in and around Hyderabad. The rest are scattered in Aurangabad, Nanded, Osmanabad and other places. The descendants include 143 grandsons and 62 great-grandsons.