Sagar Biswas :
Detectives have busted an international gold smuggling racket with the arrest of five persons, including three key officials of national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines, for their direct involvement in the illegal business.
The arrestees are: Biman’s Deputy General Manager [flight scheduling] Emdad Hossain, Chief of Planning and Scheduling Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, Manager [scheduling] Mohammad Tozzamel Hossain, owner of Farhan Money Exchange Harun-ur-Rashid and contractor of Biman Mahmudul Haque Palash.
Officials said they were picked up from different parts of the city, including Airport, Uttara and Basundhara areas, conducting a series of raids starting on Tuesday late night to early Wednesday.
The arrestees were granted four days’ remand by a magistrate court yesterday though the detectives sought 10-day remand of each for interrogation.
The arrested persons reportedly claimed that the top officials, including Biman chairman Air Vice-Marshal [retd] Jamal Uddin Ahmed, have also close link with the smuggling.
But when asked Biman Acting Managing Director Mosaddek Ahmed denied the allegation and said that he came to know about the incident through media.
“We planned the series raids after grilling Majharul Afsar, a cabin crew, who was taken to three-day remand following a gold haul of 2kg 600gm on November 12. As per his confessional statement, we came to know that Shafiul Azam Talukdar Minto, an expatriate living Dubai, sent the gold,” Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner, Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division, Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP], said.
There is a widespread allegation that police have made the belated arrest when the gold smuggling has increased alarmingly and the crime syndicates are using the flights of Biman taking advantage of indifferent mood of concerned agencies.
It is also alleged that the dishonest Biman officials have demonized the whole system, and as a result, most officials and employees have chosen the gold smuggling as the main way of their income when the national organization faces a bankruptcy situation incurring huge loss each and every year.
In this backdrop, Monirul Islam said, “It is an organized crime syndicate where Shafiul Azam controls the smuggling racket sitting in Dubai and Palash coordinates the activities. The arrested Biman officials used to make schedule in which time one will be on duty at strategic point. They also distribute work to others to bring the gold consignments out of the airport.”
The detective boss said that the big fishes who are involved in gold smuggling will also be arrested soon. “We will also arrest Biman chairman Air Vice-Marshal [retd] Jamal Uddin Ahmed, if get any solid evidence,” he said.
Officials said that apart from the bricks, bars and biscuits, the gold is also smuggled in form of ornaments and passes through the airports dodging the surveillance of 19 agencies responsible for security. It is believed that Bangladesh has become a transit route for the gold smugglers.
Describing the arrangement of gold smuggling through country, the DB man said, “Harun-ur-Rashid deals monetary transactions while flight captains of Biman and other reliable officials are used to make a free passage for the gold without any hassle through the airport customs.”
“Palash is a highly influential person. His wife is an air hostess of Biman. He was caught in the morning. We will interrogate him for more information and verify some contacts. We have already got several other names, including some women flight attendants, for their alleged involvement in the smuggling,” he said.
When asked whether there is any possibility of involvement of Customs officials, Monirul Islam said, “None will go free. We will nab everyone whose name will surface in the investigation.”
A senior Customs Official told The New Nation yesterday that at least 300 kg gold enters Bangladesh every day through the country’s three international airports — Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong and MAG Osmani International Airport in Sylhet.
According to the Customs official around 650kg of gold worth about $31m have been seized in the last 15 months. He said that the seized gold is only 10 to 15 per cent of the total smuggled gold that enter the country through different routes.
“The precious metal is brought by the international syndicates for use as a reliable mode of payment, especially in arms and drug deals while the foreign currencies like US dollars, pounds, Euro and Saudi Riyal are being smuggled out through the same channel,” the official said.
Experts said that along with Nepal, Bangladesh is being used as a transit route to smuggle gold into India, the world’s largest buyer of gold, while India imports between 850 and 1,000 tonnes of gold, valued at about US$37.7 billion per year.
