(District – North 24 Parganas)
On November 4th, 2023, Alert Troops of Border Outpost Ranghat, 68 Battalion, BSF, under South Bengal Frontier, achieved a huge success. Based on concrete information, Jawans apprehended a smuggler with 17 foreign gold bars from their area of responsibility. The weight of the seized gold is approximately 16.7 kg and its estimated value is Rs 10.25 crore. When the smuggler was trying to bring these gold bricks from Bangladesh to India.
According to the information, Jawans of Border Outpost-Ranghat, 68 Battalion, BSF received concrete information that huge smuggling of gold is going to happen in their area. As soon as the information was received, two squads of jawans led by the commander laid ambush on the roadside in the suspicious area. At around 1100 hours, jawans saw a suspicious bike rider coming. When the bike rider came near, jawans stopped him and interrogated him. When the man became nervous during interrogation, jawans searched the bike and the man thoroughly. During the search, 17 gold bricks were found inside the cloth belt tied around the man’s waist. jawans immediately seized the gold and apprehended the bike driver.
The apprehended smuggler was identified as Ajar Mandal, (age 27 years), father Sirajul Mandla, village Rajkol, District North 24 Parganas.
During interrogation, the smuggler revealed that he is a poor man and cultivates flowers and he has been involved in cross-border smuggling for the last few days. He further revealed that he had taken these gold bars from Alam Mandal, a resident of Matila village in Bangladesh, and was going to give them to another smuggler in Bangaon. But on the way, Border Security Force jawans seized the gold during the search.
The apprehended smugglers and the seized gold have been handed over to the Customs Department, Kolkata for further legal proceedings.
Let us tell you that in the month of September, jawans of Border Outpost-Ranghat seized a huge consignment of 23 kg of gold and also apprehended a smuggler. this year, the South Bengal Frontier has seized 150 kg of gold so far.
A.K Arya, DIG, Public Relations Officer, South Bengal Frontier, BSF 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 that if any information related to gold smuggling comes to their notice, they can inform it on BSF’s Seema Sathi helpline number 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.
