About 149 stolen gold bars, weighting 18 kg, out of 165 bars that went missing from Rapmura Police Station in the city on March 17 were recovered from the possession of three policemen and their informer on Monday.
Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday detained Sub-Inspector Monjurul Islam and Constables Akash Chowdhury and Wahidul Islam of the police station for their involvement with the stealing of the gold bars. A police informer named Roni was also held in this regard.
The remaining 16 gold bars are yet to be recovered, police said.
Joint Commissioner of Police Monirul Islam told a press conference at the DMP media centre yesterday that the accused had confessed to stealing the gold bars.
It is to be noted that arrested SI Monjurul Islam seized a car with the gold bars at Balur Math near Rampura Bank Colony on March 13 and took it to the Rampura Police Station.
On March 17, police arrested one driver Samir Biswas when he came to the police station for taking back the seized car.
During interrogation, the driver said that there were 235 gold bars inside the car. But the police deposited only 70 gold bars with the station.
On the basis of the car driver’s confession, Officers In-Charge Kripa Sindhu Bala, Nasim Ahmed
Officers In-Charge (Investigation) and SI Monjurul Islam have been withdrawn for negligence of duty and issued show cause notice.
On 31 march, They were taken to an interrogation cell to know in details about gold bars. The arrested policemen, however, confessed that the gold bars were distributed among them.
On the basis of their statements, Assistant Commissioner Iqbal Hossain recovered 28 gold bars from Sataish and Kaliakoir of Gazipur.
Deputy Commissioner (East) Jahangir Hossain Matubbar recovered 58 gold bars from Narayanganj. The same day, Assistant Commissioner Jewel Rana recovered 63 gold bars from Sonatala of Bogra.
Police sources said, the said gold bars came from Dubai via Chittagong port. The smugglers use Bangladesh as transit point for smuggling into India through Benapole border.
The sources said the detained car driver, Samir Biswas, is an Indian citizen. He along with the other detainees, during remand, confessed that they had committed such crimes several times in the past.
The arrested policemen were produced to a Dhaka Court yesterday.
DMP Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told this correspondent that if any of the police officers committed such crime, it would be his or her personal responsibility. “The department can’t be liable for the crime of an individual member,” he added.
Meanwhile, the accused have been sent to jail on Monday following expiry of their remand. The have given their confessional statement to the Magistrate under section 164 on the day.
Of the charged, one Jahidul islam Anik is absconding.
