The customs officials on Saturday seized over five kilograms of gold and 75 thousand Saudi riyals at Dhaka and Chittagong airports. New Age correspondent in Chittagong reported that the customs authorities seized 25 gold bars weighing 2.5 kilograms at Shah Amanat International Airport. The officials recovered the gold bars from a luggage which was left unattended. After scanning the luggage coming from Doha by an Air Arabia flight, the customs officials recovered the gold bars wrapped in carbon papers.
‘The hunt is on for the passenger who left the luggage,’ said a senior officer.
Shagufta Mahjabin, assistant director of Customs Intelligence in Dhaka, said that on information, they seized gold ornament weighing one kilogram from a toilet at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while Shohel, a cleaner, was trying to hand over it to another person.
She said Mohammad Akram, an incoming passenger from Singapore, handed over the gold to the cleaner to pass the gold out of the airport. The authorities detained both of them for interrogation.
Earlier, the customs officials also seized 16 gold bars from an incoming passenger at the airport in the morning.
Customs assistant commissioner Nazma Jabin said the authorities recovered 1.8 kilograms of gold from one Kabir Miah at about 10:00am on his arrival from Dubai by an Emirates Airline flight.
The gold bars were concealed in soap case inside the luggage he was carrying.
The customs officials, however, did not arrest him. Nazma said they do not arrest anyone if the gold weighs below two kilograms. ‘In such case, we only seize gold on detention memo,’ she added.
This was the fourth case of seizure in last five days, the airport officials said.
At least 146 gold bars weighing 17 kilograms were recovered from a toilet of a Biman aircraft at HSIA on Tuesday night while the customs officials on Wednesday arrested an inbound passenger and seized 24 gold bars from his possession at the airport.
Mahjabin also said that the authorities arrested a passenger at Dhaka airport and seized 75 thousand Saudi riyals equivalent to about Tk 18 lakh from his possession.
The arrested was identified as Humayun Kabir who claimed himself as a businessman.
She said Humayun was scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur by a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. He arrived here on Friday from Singapore, she added.
-With New Age input