Bangladeshi held with 1.2 kg gold in Agartala airport

A Bangladesh citizen has been detained at the Agartala airport on charges of trying to smuggle a large quantity of gold to Kolkata, a senior official of the Airport Authority of India has said.

Tripura Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 August 2017, 04:49 PM
Updated : 3 August 2017, 05:41 PM

Director of Agartala airport SD Barman said, “A total of 40 gold pieces weighing 1.2 kg were found hidden in the pipe handle of a bolt-cutter during X-ray point scanning in the morning.”

The total price of the gold is around Rs 3.3 million.

Barman also said the apprehended person has been identified as Shah Alam from Brahminbaria and that he entered India on July 29 through Haridashpur border.

Alam was trying to smuggle the gold via Spice Jet flight SG277 from Agartala to Kolkata, he added.

But Alam claims he is innocent and was not aware that gold was hidden in the handle.

Police and CISF officials were interrogating him and he would later be handed over to the customs department along with the gold.

This is the fifth incident of seizure of such considerable amount of gold or foreign currency from the Agartala airport in last two months.

According to the officials, it indicates that smugglers are using Agartala airport to access mainland India.