Staff Reporter :
Customs Intelligence has confiscated 500 kilograms of gold and 427 grams of diamonds from five Apan Jewellers outlets and started a process to hand the amount over to the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Division (CIID) officials seized the gold and diamonds on Sunday morning. “These will be gradually handed over to the central bank,” said CIID Joint Director Shafiur Rahman. On Saturday, CIID Director General Moinul Khan announced seizure of the Tk 1.79 billion worth of gold and diamonds of Apan Jewellers.
The decision to confiscate 500 kilograms of gold and 427 grams of diamonds was taken after the owners failed to show documents in support of the stock, Khan added.
Customs detectives interrogated the three owners of Apan Jewellers –Dildar Ahmed, Gulzar Ahmed and Azad Ahmed — twice following raids on their outlets.
Businessman Dildar came in the limelight after the rape of two private university girls allegedly by his son Shafat and his cohorts in Raintree hotel at Banani.
One of the rape victims filed a case with Banani Police Station on May 6 accusing five people, including Shafat
The four other accused are Nayeem Ashraf, Shadman Sakif, Shafat’s driver Billal, 26, and his bodyguard Abul Kalam Azad. However, the police have managed to arrest the five rape accused. Customs Intelligence officials raided five outlets of the jewellery house and the process of handing over the gold and diamond to Bangladesh Bank already has been started, said AKM Nurul Huda Azad, CIID’s Additional Director General.
The confiscated operation was prompted by the incident of Banani rape which brought up allegations against Ahmed Shafat, son of the owner of Apan Jewellers, of boasting about his father’s wealth, the Customs Official said.
The CIID officials held 498-kg of gold and some diamonds from five outlets in Gulshan, Uttara, Mouchak and Shimanto Square on May 14 and 15. The authorities kept the ornaments at the respective outlets, in accordance with the rules, and asked the shop authorities to bring the documents to the CIID office. There was no transparency regarding the gold worth around Tk 250 crore, the CIID’s additional DG said.
The owners were first interrogated on May 17 when they sought 15 days to produce the valid documents. They failed to meet the deadline and sought more time to gather papers.
Nurul Huda of the CIID said that most of the gold is undocumented. “Only a small portion, not more than 12kgs, belongs to customers who have already paid for the gold.”
In a query, the Customs official said they have returned around 3 kg gold to the clients after verifying necessary documents.
The CIID officials in May went for the crackdown amid allegation by one of the Banani Rape victims that the prime accused Ahmed Shafat, son of one of the owners of Apan Jewellers, bragged about being a gold smuggler.
