Modern-day Shah Jahan who built ‘mini Taj Mahal’ for wife dies in a road accident, to be buried in mini Taj

Faizul Hasan Qadri, the 83-year-old retired postmaster well known for constructing a mini ‘Taj Mahal’ in memory of his deceased wife, succumbed to injuries after a road accident in Bulandshahr, he hails from Kaser Kalan in western Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district.

He took his last breath in a private hospital in Aligarh where he was taken after being hit by an unidentified vehicle outside his house in Kaser Kalan village.

Mohammad Aslam, Qadri’s nephew, said “he was taking a walk outside his house around 10.30pm on Thursday when some unidentified vehicle hit him. He was lying injured and I received information around 1 am. I rushed him to a local hospital and later to Aligarh where he died around 11 am on Friday. He got injured two years back as well after he had fallen from his bicycle and thereafter used a walker most of the time.”

Tajamulli Begum, his wife had died in December 2011 due to throat cancer. The got married in 1953. The couple did not have any children. Qadri began the construction of a replica of the Taj Mahal after his wife’s death.

According to the report published in Hindustantimes, he buried his wife inside the structure and left a space alongside her grave where he had wished to be buried after his death.

Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in August 2015 Qadri called him to Lucknow where he had politely turned down financial assistance Akhilesh had offered for completing the structure. “He had rather requested for the construction of a government-run girls’ inter college for which he later donated his four bighas of land. The school is now completed.

Yogendra Singh, SHO, Dibai police station, Bulandshahr, said, “the family did not want the postmortem to be conducted.”

Aslam, his nephew said, “The structure is still waiting for the marble. We will now bury him beside his wife’s grave inside the same structure. I will try to get the structure completed since he is no more now.”