KOLKATA: The South Bengal Frontier of the Border Security Force (BSF) has caught two Bangladeshi citizens with a huge consignment of gold that was meant to reach Mumbai via Kolkata.
The BSF, on Sunday, said they caught two smugglers red-handed with 30 gold biscuits weighing 3499.14 gms, worth Rs 1,93,81,736, on January 7. The gold was being smuggled from Bangladesh to India in the cavity of a bus coming from Bangladesh. The seizure was made at the Petrapole-Benapole border in the North 24-Parganas district.
BSF sources said that the seizure was made after the force got a tip-off that the consignment of gold was heading towards the Indian side of the border. It is learnt that the BSF guards of the 145th battalion stopped the bus that was coming to Kolkata from Dhaka, near the border checkpoint.
Once the bus was thoroughly searched, 30 gold biscuits were recovered from the possession of the driver, Mohammad Farhad and conductor Umar Farooq. The two persons were identified as Bangladeshi nationals. The arrested duo, when interrogated, claimed that the gold consignment was meant to reach an individual named Mohammad Jamal, in the New Market area in Kolkata. The consignment was to be further smuggled to Mumbai, it was learnt. BSF sources said that these two individuals had prior experience in trans-border smuggling. They are called ‘handlers’.
The Inspector General (IG) of BSF’s South Bengal frontier, Dr Atul Fulzele (IPS) recently said that the BSF was planning to induct some advanced metal detectors which would be technology-wise at par with the ones used at airports by the customs.