Man held with Tk2cr gold paste placed on five-day remand

A Dhaka court on Monday placed an individual on a five-day remand in a case filed over the recovery of gold paste worth around Tk2 crore at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the capital.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasan Shahadat passed the order after a hearing, said Sub-Inspector Abu Bakkar of the Prosecution Division.

Earlier, Sub-Inspector Md Habibul Hasib of Airport police station, also the investigation officer of the case, produced the accused, Mohammad Minhaj, 22, before the court and sought a 10-day remand for interrogation.

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According to the case statement, customs officials detained Minhaj at the holding lounge near boarding bridge C-4 in the departure area of HSIA around 7:20pm on 1 November.

Three oval-shaped pieces of gold paste, weighing a total of 1,362 grammes and worth Tk2.12 crore, were recovered from him. The gold paste had been concealed in his rectum.

Assistant Revenue Officer Md Safayet Ullah Bhuiyan of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Circle filed the case with Airport police station under the Special Powers Act.

According to the remand petition, Minhaj allegedly withheld information about his links to a gold smuggling syndicate and gave inconsistent statements during preliminary interrogation.

Investigators suspect him of being an active member of an international gold smuggling network. They said he needed to be interrogated to identify others involved in the racket, its masterminds, and the sources and transactions of the smuggled gold.