He dresses like a Mughal and claims to be one. Prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy from Hyderabad is no ordinary man merely claiming to trace his lineage to the Mughals. As the sixth-generation heir of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, he believes he's the owner of India's most iconic monument, the Taj Mahal.
To back his claim, he has even submitted a DNA report to the Hyderabad court.
In 2019, he even challenged Princess Diya Kumari of the royal family of Jaipur to show official papers related to the monument built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
He said, "If you do have the documents kept in your pothikhana, show them. If you have even a drop of Rajput blood within, show those documents."
And the Taj wasn't the only place he staked his claim to. Mr Tucy once disputed the Waqf Board's ownership of the land on which the Babri Masjid once stood in Ayodhya. He said if the land once belonged to Babur, then he, as a Mughal descendant, should inherit it. He, however, supported the construction of the Ram Temple on the property and even gifted Rs 1.80 crore worth of golden bricks for it.
At the time, he said as "the owner of the property", he had no issue with the Ram Temple being built there, according to a report in The Times Of India.
Mr Tucy serves as the Mutawalli and Caretaker of Aurangzeb's Grave in Maharashtra. He is responsible for maintaining the tomb of Aurangzeb, the controversial 17th-century Mughal emperor. He has also urged the authorities to protect the place from damage after right-wing groups called for the demolition of the ASI-protected monument.
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