Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Jewellers Samity has threatened of strike for an indefinite period from June 11 in case of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate’s failure to return the gold seized from the Apan Jewellers within 48 hours.
It has also outlined the strike program to press home their demands for a gold trading policy.
BAJUS Vice-President Enamul Haque Khan read out the statement on Wednesday afternoon while briefing reporters after a meeting held at the association’s Baitul Mukarram Market office.
Terming the seizure of gold from Apan Jewellers illegal, Enamul Haque demanded the resignation of CIID’s Director General Dr Moinul Khan.
The jewellers’ association has also asked the all jewellery shop owners across the country to respond to the shutdown call on June 11.
They have also a plan to submit a memorandum to the Finance Minister and the Commerce Minister on June 12 and to hold a grand-rally on June 15 with the participation of all gold traders in the country.
He has also requested the Prime Minister to intervene on this issue for the betterment of 28 lakh gold traders in the country.
On Tuesday, a five-member body was formed to return Apan Jewellers’ customers their ornaments. The body was formed with CIID Joint Commissioner Shafiur Rahman, Deputy Director Md Zakir Hossain, Deputy Director SM Shariful Islam, and two representatives of Bangladesh Jewellers Association and Apan Jewellers each.
When contacted, the CIID Director General Dr Moinul Khan said that they got a list of 389 customers who ordered or booked ornaments from Apan Jewellers.
“We have already delivered ornaments to 85 customers as per their order or booking and the rest will be given within next 10 days,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the customs intelligence department deposited 13.5 maunds (approximately 503.88kg) of gold and 427 grams of diamonds seized from Apan Jewellers in the Bangladesh Bank’s vault as there were no legal documents for them.
The CIID official 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.
Shafat and the four other accused 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 two girls.
Invited to Shafat’s birthday party on March 28, the two girls went to The Raintree Hotel at Banani in Dhaka around 9:00pm. After the programme ended around midnight, Shafat and his friend Nayem Ashraf alias Halim raped them forcibly in two rooms, alleged one of the two girls who filed the case on May 6.
