West Bengal: Gold worth Rs 6.86 crore, illegal cash Rs 11.5 lakh seized, 7 arrested

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], July 5 (ANI): 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 Nadia district, West Bengal, on Friday.
BSF, South Bengal Frontier officials said that gold worth an estimated market value of Rs 6,86,23,582 was seized.
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 car used in gold delivery were also seized.
According to the information, this incident occurred on July 4, 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 5.30 am and 9 am, the jawans arrested two smugglers with 4.8 kg of gold from a suspicious 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 11,58,500.
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 are all residents of District Nadia.
During preliminary interrogation, Rafiq Mandal said 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. Earlier in 2022, he was arrested by the BSF with 16 gold biscuits. The case 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. (ANI)