Biman staff Sajib lands in jail after remand in gold smuggling case

A Dhaka court on Friday sent Soayeb Kazi Sajib, an assistant technical helper of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, to jail after the completion of his five-day remand in a case filed over the smuggling of 14kg of gold worth around Tk25 crore at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarah Farzana Haque passed the order after police produced him before the court and sought his detention, said prosecution division Sub-Inspector Abu Bakkar Siddiq.

According to the detention petition, the accused was an active member of an international gold-smuggling syndicate and had been causing substantial losses to the government by illegally smuggling gold from abroad and evading customs duties for a long time.

Police said keeping the accused in custody was essential for a proper investigation into the case.

Earlier, on 6 September, a Dhaka court had granted the accused five days of remand in the case.

According to the case statement, a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight that arrived in Dhaka from Dubai via Chattogram on 5 September was searched following a tip-off. As security personnel approached, Sajib, who was allegedly moving suspiciously inside the aircraft cabin, ran into the cabin and threw away gold bars that he had allegedly concealed on his body.

It was alleged that a packet discarded by him was recovered and found to contain 120 gold bars wrapped in cloth, weighing nearly 14kg. The estimated market value of the seized gold is Tk25 crore.

A case was subsequently filed with Airport Police Station over the incident.