61kg gold, currencies seized
Customs Intelligence officials and detectives in a joint drive today seized 528 gold bars weighing around 61kg, Tk 4.5 crore and Saudi ryals worth Tk 14 lakh from a house at Purana Paltan in Dhaka.
On information about a gold smuggling gang, the officials raided the flat on sixth floor of a 12-storey building and recovered the gold and currencies, said Mustafizur Rahman, deputy director of customs intelligence.
Sheikh Md Ali, owner of the flat, used to smuggle gold into the country evading tax and then sell those to local clients, he said.
The detectives picked him up. The gold is worth Tk 30 crore.
When the officials went to his house for the raid around 4:30pm, Ali denied of storing any gold and currencies at his flat.
Then the officials searched every nook and corner of the house and found the gold bars hidden in drawers of almirahs and cots, he said adding the money was stashed under a bed.
Ali claimed that the gold belongs to his friend, an upazila chairman in Sirajganj. “He recently gave it to me for safe keeping at my house.”
Ali’s wife, Gulshanara, told The Daily Star that she got some Tk 2 crore nearly two weeks ago by selling a piece of land she had inherited from her parents in Sylhet. The rest of the money is from her husband’s business, Ali Sweets at Dhanmondi, she added.
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