Benapole Correspondent :
A group of miscreants have looted 20 kg gold from Benapole Customs House godown after breaking its confidential vault on Monday.
However, Customs authorities confirmed that dollar and money kept in the vault were not lost.
A case was registered with Benapole Port Police Station in this connection on Monday night.
Customs official said, no one was in the office because of the official holidays on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Eid Miladunnabi).
The burglary was detected when the office opened on Monday morning.
The authorities found the vault broken on Monday morning and informed police, said Belal Hossain Chowdhury, Benapole Customs Commissioner. Around 20 kg gold was found missing from the vault, he said.
The market value of the stolen gold is Tk 8.5 crore, according to customs sources. Belal said five officials, including vault in-charge Sahabul Sardar (ARO), are suspended to be involved over the incident.
A nine-member investigation committee has been formed with Joint Customs Commissioner Md Shahidul Islam as its head, he added.
Samimur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner, Benapole Customs House, said that RAB, DB, CID and PBI along with the Port Police have been investigating the incident to uncover the mystery of theft.
The miscreants broke the lock of the vault on the second floor of the old building. They looted 20kg of gold. Even though a huge amount of dollar and money were in the vault, the miscreants have looted only 20kg of gold. They disconnected all the CC cameras cable, the DC added.
