BSF Foils Gold Smuggling Attempt Near India-Bangladesh Border, Detains Bangladeshi National

North 24 Parganas: The Border Security Force (BSF) on Sunday foiled an attempt to smuggle gold along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas. The BSF troop managed to apprehend a Bangladeshi national and seize smuggled gold worth over Rs 51 lakh. Later, the alleged smuggler along with the seized gold was handed over to the Customs officials for further legal action.

Briefing about the incident, the BSF spokesperson stated that the vigilant jawans of the 145 Battalion stationed at ICP Petrapole under BSF South Bengal Frontier, acted on secret information and arrested a Bangladeshi passenger with 6 gold biscuits during a security check.

Bangladeshi National And Seized Gold Were Handed Over to Customs Officials

The Bangladeshi passenger was found in possession of the 6 gold biscuits after he arrived from Bangladesh to India. The seized gold biscuits were found weighing around 700 grams and the estimated value was over Rs 51.33 lakh.

According to the information, on July 13, all the checkpoints were alerted after the intelligence department of the BSF received concrete information about gold smuggling from the passenger terminal of ICP Petrapole. As the troop remained alert at the checkpoint, a Bangladeshi national reached the BSF search point for security clearance, where during the search, the metal detector indicated the presence of a metal substance in the lower part of his body.

He was instantly intercepted and was taken to a toilet for a thorough search. During this, 6 gold biscuits were recovered from the lower part of the body (anal cavity) of the passenger. After the recovery of the gold biscuits, the passenger was arrested and the gold was seized.

During further inquiry, the arrested Bangladeshi national was identified as Mohammad Tariqul Islam, a resident of Panchpotal village in Tangail district located in Dhaka. During interrogation, he disclosed that an unknown Bangladeshi national offered him Rs 10 thousand in exchange for ferrying 6 gold biscuits to Kolkata.

The arrested Bangladeshi passenger and the seized gold biscuits have been handed over to the Customs Department, Petrapole for further action.