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.
Balkaur Singh, whose son was shot dead in daylight on May 29 close to his Moosa village in Punjab on May 28, had complained of uneasiness on Thursday night following which he was admitted to a private hospital in Patiala from where he was shifted to the PGIMER here.
Majithia told the media here that this was also necessary because the AAP government had neither made the FIR registered in this case public even after 24 hours, nor taken any action against any BJP leader or middlemen involved.
The matter came to the fore after the victim narrated the ordeal to her parents who rescued her and later approached the Women police station at Gurugram's Sector-51 and registered a case against the accused on Wednesday. The victim told the police that she had met Pooja at a Gurugram mall a month ago. Pooja had offered her a job at a doctor's clinic.
The local people and Bishal's family members claimed that he was found with multiple wounds on Wednesday. It is alleged that Bishal was killed for not agreeing to convert to Christianity in order to marry his tribal girlfriend. Though the police are yet to confirm whether the youth was killed or committed suicide, they have arrested five people in connection with the case.
According to a source with the Ministry, the diplomats see it as a question of credibility and said that such tall claims should be avoided as it hurts the credibility of the country and the government too. The source said that it has left the diplomats embarrassed.
During the intervening night of September 13 and 14, on a specific intelligence input, the ICG strategically deployed two fast interceptor class of ships, C-408 and C-454 for patrolling in areas close to the IMBL. During midnight, the Pakistani boat was observed moving suspiciously in Indian waters, 5 nm inside notional IMBL and 40 nm from Jakhau.
