Smuggler hides gold biscuits in abdomen, nabbed after X-Ray
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 Jan, 2023 11:19 AM
Kolkata, Jan 31 (IANS) The Border Security Force (BSF) had to get an X-Ray done on a smuggler to get hold of eight gold biscuits hidden inside his lower abdomen.
The biscuits weigh 932 gm and their estimated market value is Rs 54,78,855.
The incident occurred on Monday under the jurisdiction of the Amudia Border Outpost, manned by troops of the 112 BN, BSF. This is in the North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal that shares an international border with the Satkhira district of Bangladesh.
Madai Mandal of Amudia village was stopped by BSF personnel for a routine search.
Though no incriminating item was found during the search, the hand-held metal detectors kept beeping when brought close to his lower abdomen.
Mandal maintained that he wasn't aware why this was happening. Finally, the BSF personnel shifted him to a local hospital and got an X-Ray done.
The X-Ray plate revealed the presence of some metallic objects inside his lower abdomen.
"Mandal broke down finally and confessed that they were gold biscuits. He had been given the biscuits by one Rahim of Satkhira, Bangladesh and was to hand them over to one Suresh of Bithari village in North 24-Parganas. For a mere Rs 300, he had stuffed the biscuits up his anal passage. He also admitted that he has been involved in such activities for a long time now. The biscuits were extracted and handed over to the Customs office in Tentulia along with Mandal for further processing," a senior official of the BSF's South Bengal Frontier said.
The Commanding Officer of the 112Bn said that smugglers are adopting such tactics to evade strict monitoring along the International Boundary with Bangladesh.
A search has been launched for Suresh and others who may have been involved in this operation.
In the past, smugglers have tried such tactics at airports to evade Customs officials but this is probably the first time that an attempt was made along the land border in West Bengal.
A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies, briefed the Cabinet about the status of the ongoing procurement. It was informed that 14.9 lakh metric tons of wheat had arrived in the mandis out of which more than 12 lakh metric tons had already been purchased.
The deceased, Sarabjit Singh Brar, was a resident of Laburnum Apartments at DLF Phase 1 in Gurugram. At the time of the incident that occured on Wednesday morning, Brar was at his flat along with his wife.
Joining the issue, newly-appointed state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring targeted Mann over the Centre's interfering in the state's law and order matters in the context of the Punjab Governor's visits to the border areas.
On examination of their check-in-baggage, 43 gold cut-bits of 24k purity, weighing 2.493 kg and valued at Rs 1.20 crore, were found wrapped around laptop chargers with adhesive tapes.
The incident took place at Kusupur village in the state's Cuttack district. Accused Shiba Prasad Sahoo (42) confessed to the crime through a video message and sent it to his village sarpanch and few others. He later surrendered before Balichandrapur police in Jajpur district.
According to a source, the meeting continued for two hours around and both CMs discussed how to give free 300 units of electricity in Punjab - as promised by the party in its election campaign.
