During routine checking of people coming from Bangladesh at the Petrapole Integrated Check Post, known as smuggling route, the personnel of the BSF 145 battalion stopped a Bangladeshi man, Anisuzzaman Anees.
“When the passport was checked, a fake ATM card made of gold was found. The passenger was immediately taken to the BSF office located at the passenger terminal and extensively searched. During the search, two gold biscuits and three half gold biscuits were found on him,” said a BSF official.
Interestingly, the fake card was concealed in a cover which made it look original, said sources.
What Anees told the BSF
During interrogation, Anees said he runs a retail medicine shop in the Daudkandi upazila of Comilla in Bangladesh. Since he was to come to India, a Bangladeshi man named Jashim Ahmed offered him 20,000 Bangladeshi Taka to deliver some gold in the country.
He said that the consignment was to be handed over to an unknown person near New Market in Kolkata. A BSF source said, “However, the name of the man to whom the gold was to be supplied was not disclosed to Anees.”
The source added, “Apart from the fake card, some of the gold was concealed under his tongue and some in his lower body, wrapped in tape and carbon paper.”
Indian gold smuggler held in Ranaghat
The South Bengal Frontier unit of the BSF also informed that on Tuesday, another man was caught at a different place on the Indo-Bangla border with four gold bars and six gold biscuits. The seizure was made by the jawans of the BSF 68 Battalion posted at the Border Outpost at Ranaghat.
Based on inputs from the BSF Intelligence Department, BSF jawans laid a special ambush. At 4.20 pm, the jawans saw a suspicious person coming along the international border on a bicycle. When he spotted the BSF jawans, he started to run away. However, the jawans managed to catch him. The personnel found the smuggled gold tied around his thighs.
The man was identified as Vijay Tarafdar, a resident of the Coolia village in the North 24 Parganas.
As per the BSF officials, Tarafdar, during the interrogation, said he got involved in smuggling to earn easy money. He also revealed that he received the gold from one Jashim Mandal of the Matila village in Bangladesh. On the gold seized from him, Tarafdar said he was to deliver it to an unknown person at the Raghudevpur village in the Indian side. Tarafdar said he was to earn Rs 4,000 for delivering the gold.
The total seizure and an appeal
According to a senior BSF official, “The total weight of the seized gold in the two cases is 1,410.74 gram and the estimated value of the gold is Rs 94,68,501.”
The arrested smugglers and the seized gold have been handed over to the Customs office for further legal action.
A K Arya, DIG, Public Relations Officer of the BSF, South Bengal Frontier, said, “Smugglers trap the poor and innocent people by luring them with small amounts of money. The members of the gang do not directly get involved in smuggling and thus target the poor.”
Arya appealed to the people living on the border to contact BSF’s Seema Sathi helpline number if they get any information related to gold smuggling. “You can inform BSF about this on 14419.
An official said the South Bengal Frontier unit of the BSF can also be reached at 9903472227 through WhatsApp messages or voice messages. “Incidents of gold smuggling can be reported on this number,” the official said.