DHAKA: The land ports in Bhomra and Benapole were used by smugglers to push the gold into neighboring country India .
Although Bangladesh is no stranger to see gold being smuggled into the country, the frequency of it reached an alarming level this year; while for the first time ever, not only the gold mules, but also high-ranking aviation officials were directly linked to the smuggling racket.
The land ports in Bhomra and Benapole were used by the smugglers to push the gold into India, where the demand for the product was sky-high because of steep import taxes.The smugglers had never acted alone; over the years they had been in cahoots with unscrupulous officials involved with flight operations and management, who have consistently managed to escape the investigators’ radar.
But missing pieces of the puzzle started to fit in following the arrest of Biman cabin crew Mazharul Afsar Rassel on November 12 – who was caught at the Dhaka airport with 2.6kg of gold bars. During the interrogation, Rassel finally gave investigators a solid lead to chase by naming several top officials from Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Customs, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).
Acting on the lead, police arrested Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, Biman’s chief of flight planning and scheduling; and Tozammel Hossain and Emdad Hossain, deputy general manager and manager of flight scheduling respectively.
Mahmudul Haque Palash, a listed contractor of Biman and reportedly a godson to the Biman chief, was also arrested for allegedly being a key man behind the gold smuggling racket. Biman Chairman Jamal Uddin Ahmed, however, denied any involvement with Palash.
The arrestees gave confessional statements where they mostly blamed each other. But they also reportedly revealed names of at least 56 bigwigs such as ministers, lawmakers, high-ranked government officials and influential businessmen – who had links to the gold smuggling business.
