Big haul of gold, currencies in city

A joint drive of customs intelligence and DB police on Thursday recovered 62 kilogrammes of gold and Tk 4.50 million worth of local and foreign currencies from a house at Purana Paltan in the city.

Acting on a tip-off, they launched the drive, led by Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department (CIID) deputy director Mustafizur Rahman and DB assistant commissioner Mohammad Monzur Morshed, on the 6th floor of the House No 29/1 at around 5:30pm. The currencies and gold bars were recovered from different hidden places of the house.

They also arrested the flat owner -- Mohammad Ali, 60 -- from the spot.

"After being informed by our sources, we have started the joint drive and already recovered four bags of currency -- both local and foreign -- and 528 gold bars from the house," Mustafizur Rahman told the newsmen.

He also said they also recovered some currencies from the flat of his son -- on the 11th floor of the same apartment building.

During the four and a half hours of drive the law enforcers searched every corner of the flats.

When asked about the currencies, Mohammad Ali claimed it as 'legal money', and said he had kept the money at his house for ensuring security.

About the recovered gold bars, he also claimed that he had purchased some of the gold bars in phases. An upazila chairman of Sirajganj Sadar, named Reaz Uddin, had also kept some of the gold bars with him a few days ago, he mentioned.

"I have sweetmeat and real estate businesses," Mr Ali added. His wife, however, claimed that her husband was engaged in foreign exchange business in partnership.

The total amount of recovered currencies could not be ascertained immediately, as the counting was going on until filing of this report at 9:00 pm.

Mr Ali initially denied possessing any 'illegal' currencies and gold bars at his house. However, at one stage he admitted that there were currencies amounting to Tk 40 million, including about 1.4 million Saudi Riyals.

Initially, the DB police was suspecting that Mr Ali had been involved in gold smuggling. The police officials also said they would carry out further investigation to find out whether other people were involved with him or not.

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