Over 5kg gold seized in city, one held

In separate incidents, gold weighing 5.375 kg was recovered at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Kamalapur Railway Station in the city Monday, reports UNB.

Customs officials seized gold bars weighing 4.375 kg at the airport while police recovered 1 kg at Kamalapur Railway Station.

Being tipped off that a gold consignment was being taken from Dubai, customs officials intensified their vigilance at the airport after a flight of Fly Dubai landed at the airport at 12:07pm.

When baggage was being scanned randomly by the scanner at the green channel, they detected the presence of gold at a small trolley bag at about 1:45 pm, said Assistant Commissioner (Customs) Shamprity Pramanik.

After opening the bag, the customs officials found that sticks used to make the structure of the bag were made of gold instead of metal.  Thus, the gold was being smuggled into the country in a unique way.

However, carrier of the trolley bag escaped sensing danger, she said.

Earlier in the day, police arrested a young man, identified as Babar alias Riraj, 27, along with 10 gold bars weighing 1kg at Kamalapur Railway Station.

Sources at Kamalapur Government Railway Police Station said 'Turna Nishita' express train from Chittagong arrived at the station around 7:45am.

Being tipped off, a GRP team challenged Siraj while he was getting down from the train.

Later, the law enforcers recovered the gold worth Tk 4.5 million from his possession and arrested him.