Kolkata, March 3 (IANS) The Border Security Force (BSF) personnel on Friday apprehended two cross-border smugglers and seized 2.56 kg gold biscuits valued at Rs 1.5 crore from them.
The smugglers were nabbed at the Haridaspur-Jayantipur border at Bongaon sub-division in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
A source said that the patrolling team of the BSF tracked the two arrested individuals whose movements looked suspicious.
When the patrolling team questioned them about their whereabouts, they gave "irrelevant and inconsistent answers", and suddenly tried to escape.
However, the BSF personnel quickly nabbed them.
The arrested persons have been identified as Zahir Hossain Mollah and Giasuddin Mondal. Both are residents of North 24 Parganas district.
During questioning, they admitted that they crossed the border to Bangladesh to get the gold biscuits from one Karim Mondal -- a resident of Jessore district there.
They were supposed to smuggle those gold biscuits from Bangladesh to India and hand them over to one Raju Biswas, who is also a resident of North 24 Parganas district.
The arrested duo were supposed to get Rs 20,000 each for carrying out the assignment.
The passengers were later identified as Moshin Khan Saifi and Asim. Saifi was supposed to travel from Delhi to Hyderabad by Vistara Flight, whereas Asim was supposed to travel from Delhi to Dubai by Air India Express flight.
The official said that at about 4 pm, CISF staff at Terminal-3 noticed suspicious activities of a passenger in the check-in area. The passenger was later identified as Misam Raza, who was about to fly to Dubai on a SpiceJet flight. Raza was then diverted to the random checking point for a thorough checking of his luggage.
The arrested accused have been identified as Vikas Bhadana, Paras Sood, Thachang Tungshanao, Avinash, Ram Basua and Abhislash Singh, the call centre manager. While the call centre and house owner has been identified as Sachin Taneja.
A SAD delegation led by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and handed over a memorandum stating that the Chief Minister and the Excise Minister have violated the provisions of the Official Secrets Act by making official files of the state available to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and MP Raghav Chadha, besides private persons.
The location of another plotter, Anmol Bishnoi, has also been traced to Kenya. The Bishnois had fled India before the daylight killing of Moosewala on May 29 in the Moosa village in Mansa district. It is believed that Sachin, a nephew of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, and Brar hatched the conspiracy to kill the famed Punjabi singer.
Sisodia's bank locker at a Ghaziabad bank was searched by the CBI on Tuesday morning. Manish Sisodia and his wife Seema Sisodia reached the bank along with the probe agency officials to examine the bank locker in connection with the alleged irregularities in the excise policy.
