BSF seize gold bars & banned cough syrup

BALURGHAT: In two separate incidents, BSF seized gold bars and banned cough-syrup (Phensedyl) from Hili and Balurghat on Saturday.

Two persons were detained for their alleged involvement in smuggling gold and phensedyl by BSF officials and later were handed over to police for further interrogation.

According to a BSF source, 11 gold bars weighing 1.251 kilograms having worth more than Rs 49 lakhs were impounded from Balupara in Hili border area in a tip off conducted by the senior BSF officials under 199 of BSF battalions. BSF nabbed a person, identified as Sahaddul Mondal, (47) in this connection. He hails from Ujal village.

A BSF official said Mondal had kept gold bars concealed in his attire for smuggling them through a linkman.

Recently, he received the items from a Bangladeshi man to send them in India. Having known from a reliable source, BSF seized the items from him. Cash and mobiles were also recovered from him.

In another incident, 120 bottles of phensedyl meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh were seized by the BSF jawans under 137 of BSF battalions from Balurghat's Durgapur area and nabbed a person.

The accused Sidhu Das (20) hails from Hili's Raghurampur. He has been remanded in police custody for five days after he was produced in Balurghat court for more details.

A BSF source said Das had stored the phensedyl bottles in Durgapur, close to the Bangladesh border, through a linkman based in Bangladesh. Acting on a tip-off, a BSF team seized the bottles.

BSF said gold and cough-syrup smuggling is a regular phenomenon in this area that is located in the vicinity of the international border with Bangladesh.

A swathe of the international border has remained unfenced and this is what is helping the cross-border smugglers and rustlers operating on both sides of the border.