Alert jawans of the South Bengal Frontier have shocked the gold smugglers by seizing gold for the second consecutive day. Recently, on February 28, gold worth Rs 1.77 crore was seized from District North 24 Parganas by the South Bengal Frontier. The next day on 29 February 2024, the jawans of Border Outpost Jhorpada of 8 Battalion under South Bengal Frontier, while taking action against gold smugglers in Nadia district of West Bengal, arrested a smuggler with 4 gold biscuits when the smuggler was trying to smuggle gold from Bangladesh to India. The total weight of the seized gold is 466.60 grams and the estimated value is ₹27,94,467/-.
According to the spokesperson of South Bengal Frontier, the incident occurred on February 29 when the jawans of 08 Battalion, BSF received reliable information from the Intelligence Department of BSF about smuggling of gold from Bangladesh to India. The jawans launched a special operation based on the information. At around 4.15 pm, during patrolling, BSF jawans were moving towards a suspicious place in Jhorpada village and caught a suspected person while trying to escape. During interrogation on the spot, the suspected person revealed that he had buried the gold in the soil near a tree in his courtyard. The jawans recovered four gold biscuits during the excavation. The jawans seized the gold and arrested the person.
The arrested person was identified as Mrinmoy Bala, S/O- Late Mrinal Kanti Bala, village Jhorpada, district – Nadia, WB.
During preliminary interrogation, he revealed that he had taken gold from Josim, a resident of Hudapara village in Bangladesh, and was going to deliver it to an unknown person at Panikhali village. He also said that he would have got Rs 1500/- for this work.
The arrested person and the seized gold biscuits have been handed over to the Customs Department, Majdiya.
AK Arya, DIG, Public Relations Officer of BSF, South Bengal Frontier, expressed happiness over this achievement of the soldiers. He said that notorious smugglers trap poor and innocent people by luring them with small amounts of money. The gang of notorious smugglers is not directly involved in crimes like smuggling, hence they target poor people. He appeals to the people living on the border to contact BSF’s Seema Sathi helpline no. if they get any information related to gold smuggling. You can inform BSF about this on 14419. Apart from this, South Bengal Frontier also issued another number 9903472227 on which WhatsApp messages or voice messages related to gold smuggling can also be sent. An appropriate reward amount will be given to the person giving concrete information and his identity will be kept confidential.
