The vigilant jawans of the 68 Battalion stationed in Nadia district under BSF, South Bengal Frontier, in a joint operation with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Kolkata, arrested 7 smugglers in 4 consecutive search operations at Seemanagar on State Highway No. 11 in District Nadia, West Bengal. 16 gold bricks and a gold biscuit weighing 9.572 kg were recovered from their possession and cash worth Rs 11,58,500/- and a Maruti Eco car used in gold delivery were also seized. The total estimated market value of the seized gold is Rs 6,86,23,582/-
According to the information, this incident is of July 4, 2024 in which DRI shared information about gold smuggling with the intelligence department of BSF. On confirming the information, a joint team of BSF’s 68 Battalion and DRI conducted a comprehensive search operation of vehicles on State Highway No. 11 in the area of Simanagar. In this operation, which ran between 0530 hrs and 9 hrs, the jawans arrested two smugglers with 4.8 kg of gold from a suspicious Maruti Eco car. After this, 4 other smugglers were also detained during the search with 4.82 kg of gold. Based on the information received during the preliminary interrogation, during another operation, during the search of a suspicious house in Ramnagar village of Karimpur, a person was arrested with 1 gold biscuit and illegal cash of Rs 1158500 /-.
The main smuggler arrested has been identified as Rafiq Mandal (name changed) who is a resident of Teypur in District Nadia. Apart from this, 6 other gold couriers have been identified as Lal, Ravi, Pradeep, Dawood, Seemanto and Bittu (all names changed) who all are residents of District Nadia (West Bengal).
During preliminary interrogation, Rafiq Mandal (name changed) told that he has been involved in gold smuggling for a long time and this time he was going to deliver a consignment of gold to an unknown person in Krishnanagar, in return for which he would have got Rs 3000, but BSF caught him with gold before that and earlier in 2022 he was arrested by BSF with 16 gold biscuits. The case of which is still going on.
Apart from this, all the gold couriers revealed that they carry gold from the border area of Karimpur and hand it over to unknown persons at Dum Dum Railway Station and for this work they get 2 to 5 thousand rupees.
All the smugglers and gold caught have been handed over to DRI, Kolkata for further legal action.
BSF, South Bengal Frontier Public Relations Officer Shri A.K. Arya, DIG expressed his satisfaction over the successful operation by BSF personnel and DRI. He emphasized BSF’s commitment to take strict action against smuggling activities. He urged the border residents to report any information related to gold smuggling to BSF’s *Seema Sathi Helpline Number 14419* or through WhatsApp message or voice message on *9903472227*. A suitable reward will be given for concrete information, also the identity of the informer will be kept confidential.
