Bettiah: A burglar struck Bettiah and escaped with the handle of an antic cannon and computers containing valuable details belonging to the royal family.

This is only the latest in a series of thefts, the first one being committed in 1990. Pramod Vyas, a scion of the Raj Guru family, called the theft a deep-rooted conspiracy to manipulate data about their property. "To my mind this is merely a ploy to manipulate data," said Pramod Vyas. He demanded a high-level inquiry.

In an FIR with the Town police station, the royal family's manager's secretary Rajneesh Kumar told the police on Monday evening that the burglars walked away with computers from a confidential section. Strangely, the theft of the cannon's handle is not mentioned in the FIR.

There used to be a two antic cannons in Rajdewari area of Bettiah. One cannon was removed and kept in safe custody by officials. The handle of the other cannon was found missing on Monday morning.

"I haven't received any report from my officials yet," said Tarikh Iqbal, the royals' manager.

The erstwhile Bettiah kingdom has had a chequered history of theft. After major thefts of valuable worth several crores in 1990 and 1994, thieves stole antic utensils in 2011. This was followed by other theft cases in 2012 and 2013. On July 6, 2011, the famous clock belonging to the erstwhile kingdom was stolen.