BSF Foils Gold Smuggling Attempt Worth Rs 29.36 Lakh Hidden In Body
Kolkata: Mahila jawans of ICP Petrapole, 145 Battalion under South Bengal border, caught a woman smuggler with 466.560 grams of gold paste on 12th February. She had hidden in the lower private part of her body. The woman was trying to bring this gold from Bangladesh to India. The estimated value of the seized gold is Rs. 29,36,995/-.
During routine checking of Indo-Bangladesh movement of passengers from passenger terminal at ICP Petrapole, a suspicious Bangladeshi woman passenger who was entering India from Bangladesh was stopped by BSF mahila prahari. When the mahila prahari searched her with Hand Held Metal Detector (HHMD), the machine indicated the presence of metallic. Thereafter, the mahila prahari took the passenger to the lady search cordon for thorough frisking. Apart from this, during the thorough search, 04 pieces of gold biscuits were found in the luggage of the female passenger. The Mahila prahari arrested the female passenger along with gold and brought her to the border post for interrogation.
The woman was identified as Nazneen Nahar, wife of Mohammad Altaf Hussain, resident of Khilgaon, Dhaka.
During interrogation, she revealed that she used to transport small items like chocolates, biscuits etc. from India to Bangladesh for her livelihood. Further, she revealed that she had received gold from one person in Benapole market, Bangladesh, which was to be handed over to another person in the New Market of Kolkata. If the gold consignment was successfully smuggled into India through ICP Petrapole, she would have received Rs 6,000/- in return. When she was coming to India from Bangladesh via ICP Petrapole, during checking, BSF caught her red handed with gold biscuits.
The apprehended woman smuggler along with the seized gold has been handed over to Custom Office Petrapole for further legal action.
A K Arya, DIG, Public Relations Officer, BSF South Bengal Frontier has expressed happiness over this achievement of the jawans. The officer stated gold smugglers try to frequent attempts to smuggle gold but BSF jawans foil their plans on the spot. He appealled to people living on the border to report any information related to gold smuggling through their Seema Saathi helpline no. 14419 or through WhatsApp messages or voice messages on 9903472227. A suitable reward will be given to the person providing concrete information, and their identity will be kept confidential.
