Nizam poorer by $1 million

A Hyderabad court has ordered Prince Jah to pay the amount to his estranged third wife, reports Ashok Das.

“Queens” are known to be a canny lot — especially those who have “impoverished” Nizams as husbands.

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A Hyderabad family court on Monday ordered the 72-year-old former Nizam of Hyderabad, Prince Mukarram Jah to pay $1 million to his third wife, Manolya Onur. Jah — the last of the Hyderabad royals — currently lives with his fourth wife in Turkey.

The order is crippling for the Nizam stripped of his palaces and jewels. Most of it, including his collection of jewels — considered the world’s largest — has either been sold or mortgaged. Manolya — the former Miss Turkey — married the Prince in 1989 after a whirlwind romance. The Nizam divorced her in 1994 after five years of marriage. They have a 15-year-old daughter. In 1996, Manola filed a case for her share of the Nizam’s property and maintenance for daughter Niloufer and herself. She had been camping in Hyderabad for nearly a year to push her case.

Family court judge Radhakrishnaiah ordered the prince to pay $15,000 every month as maintenance to his former wife and their daughter.

According to the order, the Prince has to pay $700,000 — the Mehr amount with interest from February 10, 1995. Besides, he will have to shell out another $3 lakh with interest from February 10, 1995, to repay a loan he had taken from Manolya, her counsel SH Prasad said. The court has “charged” the Chiran Fort palace, Chowmohalla and Falaknuma palaces in the city and Cedar Palace in Ooty to recover the amount, barring the Nizam from selling or mortgaging them. Had the prince known that divorce would be so pricey, he may have opted for a “compromise”instead.

But Monday’s order has put paid to any such hope.