The Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday seized 27 gold bars weighing approximately 2.145kg and worth about Rs 1.30 crore from a Bangladeshi woman when she was entering India through the Petrapole international check-post in North 24-Parganas with a valid passport and visa.
Woman personnel of the BSF’s 145-battalion attached to the south Bengal frontier apprehended Monika Dhar, 34, a resident of Chittagong in Bangladesh.
A spokesperson for the BSF’s south Bengal frontier in Calcutta said the intelligence wing had given a tip-off that a Bangladeshi woman smuggler would arrive with gold at the international terminal.
“Our personnel stopped the suspected woman and found 27 different types of gold bars hidden in a garment that was tied around her waist,” the spokesperson said.
During interrogation, the woman purportedly said Suman Dhar, a resident of Chittagong and an alleged smuggling racket operator, had given her the gold bars to hand over to a person in Barasat.
“She later confessed that it was her first smuggling attempt and she had been promised Rs 2,000 for the task,” a BSF officer at Petrapole said, adding that Monika and the seized gold bars were handed over to Customs authorities at Petrapole for further legal action.
“This is the success of our continued surveillance to stop the smuggling of gold and other things,” a senior BSF officer said.
To prevent the smuggling of gold, the BSF, in addition to its Seema Sathi helpline service, has also introduced a dedicated Whatsapp number (9903472227) for villagers living along the Indo-Bangladesh border in south Bengal to share any smuggling-related information with the paramilitary force.
TMC worker killed
Trinamul Congress activist Anowar Ali was shot dead at Titagarh in North 24-Parganas on Friday afternoon.
The 30-year-old was a cyber cafe owner and a part-time transporter. He was returning home by foot through G.C. Road from a mosque when two bike-borne assailants shot him from close range.
Ali was rushed to B.N. Bose Hospital in Barrackpore and referred to a hospital in Calcutta soon after, but he succumbed to the injuries on the way.
Trinamul leader and Barrackpore municipality chairman Uttam Das said: “Anowar was a dedicated party worker. It is not clear why he was killed. We have asked police to trace the killers.”
