5 cases filed against Apan Jewellers for evading duty

Customs intelligence yesterday filed five separate cases against three owners of Apan Jewellers, including Dildar Ahmed Selim, father of Banani double rape prime accused Ahmed Shafat, for dodging customs duty. 

Dildar was accused in three cases, while each of his two brothers Gulzar Ahmed and Azad Ahmed in one case under the customs act, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) Director General Moinul Khan told The Daily Star   last night. 

The cases were lodged with the Dhaka Customs House.

Commissioner of the customs house would adjudicate the cases, he said, adding that more criminal cases were being prepared against them in connection with the seizure of 567.54kg of gold from Apan Jewellers' five outlets. 

On Sunday, the CIID confiscated the gold and 7,369 pieces of diamond from five outlets of Apan Jewellers at Gulshan, Uttara, Mouchak and Shimanto Square as Apan Jewellers failed to produce valid documents for the ornaments.

The gold and diamonds were later deposited with Bangladesh Bank.

There was no transparency regarding the gold worth about Tk 274.35 crore and diamonds worth around Tk 10 crore, CIID officials said.

CIID officials last month went for the crackdown amid allegation by one of the Banani rape victims that prime accused Shafat bragged about being a gold smuggler.

Shafat also boasted about their wealth and said police would not touch them when the two girls warned that they would go to the law enforcers, according to the testimony of one of the victims.

Invited to Shafat's birthday party on March 28, the girls went to the Raintree Dhaka hotel in Banani around 9:00pm. After the party, Shafat and his friend Nayem Ashraf alias Halim raped them in two rooms, alleged one of the girls who filed the case.

Shafat and Nayem confessed to raping the girls, while three other accused -- Shafat's driver Billal Hossain, bodyguard Rahmat and victims' friend Shadman Sakif -- admitted their involvement in the incident.

Police yesterday pressed charges against the five Banani rape accused with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka.