Apan Jewellers owners fail to provide docs for gold, diamonds

Owners of Apan Jewellers have failed to provide any document against the stockpiling of about 500kg of gold and 427g of diamond ornaments.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 17 May 2017, 01:51 PM
Updated : 25 May 2017, 01:33 PM

The owners of Apan Jewellers have failed to provide documents against the stockpiling of nearly 500kg of gold and 427g of diamond ornaments.

Dildar Ahmed and his brothers Gulzar Ahmed and Azad Ahmed went to the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate or CIID to be quizzed on Wednesday.

The Raintree hotel’s Managing Director HM Adnan Haroon, however, failed to appear before the CIID to answer questions on the illegal stockpiling of alcohol and evasion of import duties.

Lawyers for Haroon said he was sick and not in a position to appear before the CIID.

After quizzing the Apan Jewllers owners and hearing Adnan's plea for more time, the CIID asked them to reappear on May 23.

The two businesses are facing intense criticism after Dildar's son Shafat Ahmed was accused of raping two university students at the hotel in Banani.

Customs intelligence officials said they are investigating Apan Jewellers on 'public demand'.

After the five-hour questioning of Dildar and his brothers, CIID Director General Moinul Khan told the media that the directorate 'seized' the ornaments during raids on Apan Jewellers outlets on Sunday and Monday.

The ornaments were 'seized' in the business's DCC Market and Suvastu Tower in Gulshan, Uttara, Mouchak and Shimanto Square in Jigatala shops because the authorities could not show any papers for the stocks. Moinul said.

"The three owners could not provide any legal documents even today (Wednesday)," he said.

The CIID chief also said they submitted applications asking for 15 more days. The customs asked them to appear again and take part in the hearing on the gold and diamond cache with necessary papers on those at 2pm on May 23, he added.

Emerging from the CIID office after the questioning, Dildar told reporters he was 'innocent'.

"I did business the way other people in the country do. We do not run any illegal business anywhere," he said.

"...If I have done anything wrong, I beg the people's mercy," he added.

The Apan Jewellers owners have complained that they had to suspend their business activities because the customs sealed off the vaults containing ornaments at the shops.

"If my shops are sealed (for not being able to produce papers), every shop across Bangladesh has to be closed," Dildar said. 

He said he had wanted to make guidelines on jewellery business in Bangladesh when he was a secretary of the jewellers' association, but he could not. He did not say why he could not make the guideline.

"There should be guidelines, accountability," he said.‎

CIID chief Moinul said the customs detectives ordered Apan Jewellers to return gold, gold ornaments and other jewelleries to the customers at 2pm on May 22.

The customers gave those to Apan Jewellers for repair and exchange. The owners said in the hearing that the amount of such gold could be from two to 10 kilograms.

He also said the initial accusations, for which the shops were raided, were found true.

Apan Jewellers will be able to open the sealed vaults in presence of customs detectives on Thursday to collect necessary documents.