One held for smuggling gold from Middle-East

Kolkata: In a major breakthrough, Kolkata Police has arrested a crucial member of a gold smuggling racket involved in smuggling of gold from the Middle-East. Police have recovered gold worth Rs 1 crore. Police arrested Bikash Bhowmick from Burabazar area on Thursday. Bikash is a resident of Agartala.

The probe in this connection was initiated three months ago after one was arrested with gold worth Rs 70 lakh.

While probing into the incident, police have come to know about a racket that is involved in smuggling of gold and the members' connection with the Middle-East has also come to light.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officers from Burabazar police station were set up to probe into the case. There were sub-inspector Bodhisatta Pramanik, Manash Goswami, Rajib Basu and sergeant of Central Division Somnath Ghosh in the team led by officer-in-charge of Burabazar police station Soumya Bandyopadhyay.

The investigation had revealed that the gold is smuggled into the country from the Middle-East through Bangladesh.

It used to reach Tripura from Bangladesh and then used to get distributed in different markets in the eastern states of the country.

The team went to Tripura to probe into the incident and came to know about some of the people involved in the racket. Police were keeping a close watch on the suspected persons. A few days ago, police received a tip off that a huge quantity of gold will be brought to Kolkata.

Soon after receiving the tip off, the team of policemen went to North Bengal and found out that the person who will bring the smuggled gold to Kolkata will take Kanchanjungha Express from

North Bengal.

Police had followed the main in the train. After reaching Sealdah Station, he didn't take the straight Mahatma Gandhi Road to reach Burabazar. Instead, he went to Esplanade and then went towards Burabazar via Strand Road.

Police stopped him when he was about to enter Burabazar and took him to the police station.

Initially, he tried to distract the police saying that he was unaware of what police was saying. Later, when searched police found 25 gold bars weighing around 3 kg from Bikash and it was worth Rs 1 crore.

Police have come to know that the gold was brought from Dubai via Bangladesh and Tripura. They are continuing with the investigation to arrest other members of the racket.