'Only one enemy property in Bhopal'

BHOPAL: District administration after its two-year investigations could find only one property belonging to Abida Sultan - the daughter of Nawab Hamidullah Khan the last Nawab of Bhopal- who migrated to Pakistan. Conclusions of the district land records department's investigation to identify enemy property could well see the end of speculation over inheritance of the royal properties of erstwhile Bhopal State and comes as a huge relief for actor Saif Ali Khan and Pataudi family.
"From the beginning, we have been claiming there can hardly be any property that belongs to Abida Sultan in Bhopal and surrounding areas as suspected by Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI). Predecessors of my client have been recognised by the Union government and a Presidential notification in 1961 has accepted Sajida Sultan as the only successor of Nawab Hamidullah's all properties and assets," said Rajesh Pancholi, lawyer of Saif Ali Khan. There is a court stay in the matter after CEPI vesting order was challenged in the MP high court by Khan.
Saif Ali Khan had replied to CEPI notice, citing merger agreement in 1949 between Union government and Nawab and claimed his grandmother Sajida Sultan inherited Bhopal State's properties making the Pataudi family inheritor of royal properties. "We are not against government vesting control of any true enemy properties," he added.
Theactor moved MP high court after a vesting order of Feb 24, 2015 wherein EPI had on paper vested control of around 131 properties as 'enemy property' belonging to Abida Sultan . Bhopal Nawab's properties worth crores are largely controlled by Pataudi family across Bhopal, Raisen and Sehore. It includes around 1,600 acre of residential, community and agricultural land worth crores.
Sources said land records officials have traced land records from 1940 to 2016 record and only one property by the name Nani Ki Haveli in walled city has been traced to Abida Sultan.