10 lower-tier Biman officials sued

The Customs House has sued 10 staff of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and four others for smuggling 124kg of gold, over a month after an NBR probe pointed to their involvement.

An assistant revenue officer of the Customs House filed the case with Airport Police Station on Friday after receiving a directive from the National Board of Revenue on Tuesday, said Moinul Khan, director general of Customs Intelligence.

None of the 14 accused had been arrested in the case as of yesterday, said Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Shah Alam of the police station.

He said the case was handed over to the Detective Branch of Police.

A DB investigator told The Daily Star last night that six of the accused were arrested in connection with other gold smuggling cases earlier but they were out on bail.

Asked what action was taken against the accused Biman staff, Khan Mosharraf Hossain, general manager (public relations) of Biman, said they were yet to receive any “documents” in this regard. “Once we receive papers we will take action against them as per law,” he told this paper over the phone.

The accused Biman staff are: Mohammad Masud, aircraft mechanic; Anis Uddin Bhuiyan, aircraft mechanic assistant; Shahjahan Siraj, junior inspection officer; Abu Zafar, cleaning supervisor; Kamrul Hassan, junior security officer; mechanics Osman Gani and Mujibar Rahman, officer Saleh Ahmed, and employees Raihan and Maksud of Engineering Hanger. 

The four others are: Gauranga Roshan, from Nepal; Milon Sikder, chairman of SS Cargo; Jasimuddin, a tailor of Cox's Bazar; and Jason Prince, an Indian.

Of the Biman employees, Masud and Anis are also accused in the case filed in connection with the haul of 105kg gold in April this year.

The six-member NBR probe body submitted the report on October 22. The NBR then scrutinised the report and sent it to the finance ministry for a go-ahead to take legal action against the Biman staff.

Getting the nod, the NBR sent letters to the home ministry requesting it to include the case in its Monitoring Cell and form a probe team comprising specialised law enforcers, added sources. It also asked the home ministry to use a speedy trial tribunal.

Customs officials believe several other Biman staff -- including the captain of the aircraft concerned, its co-pilot and crew members -- might also be involved in smuggling.

“Thorough grilling of the accused could help identify smuggling rackets and put them on trial,” stated the report.

In its biggest ever haul, customs officials at Shahjalal International Airport seized 1,064 gold bars weighing around 124kg and worth Tk 54 crore on July 24 last year.

Following a tip-off, customs officials searched flight BG-702 about half an hour after it landed. The flight from Dubai landed in Dhaka and then flew to Kathmandu and returned once again to Dhaka before Customs Intelligence found the bars inside an air-tight chamber of the cargo hold.

In the case, the plane had been shown seized as evidence and was kept in the custody of the Biman managing director.

Customs Intelligence suspect that the gold bars were heading for India.

According to Customs Intelligence, they had seized 680kg of gold and arrested 90 people at the country's three international airports in the last 17 months. A section of the arrestees were staff of Biman and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh.

Besides, Armed Police Battalion seized 112kg of gold and arrested 25 people in the last two years at Dhaka airport, said officials.

In a 12-hour operation since November 18 evening, detectives arrested five suspected members of a gold smuggling racket, including three Biman high-ups.