Biman staffer placed on 5-day remand over smuggling of 14kg gold

A Dhaka court today (6 September) placed a Biman Bangladesh Airlines staffer on five days’ remand in a case over the alleged smuggling of nearly 14kg of gold worth Tk25.2 crore on a Dubai-Dhaka flight via Chattogram.

The accused, Biman assistant technical helper Mohammad Soaib Kazi Sojib, was produced before Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Kamal Uddin’s court today.

The court passed the order after a hearing on a 10-day remand plea filed by Airport Police Station Inspector Sharif Hossain, the case investigator.

According to the remand plea, Sojib is an active member of an international gold smuggling syndicate and has long been involved in smuggling gold into Bangladesh from abroad, evading customs duties and causing losses to the government.

The investigator said Sojib needed to be interrogated extensively to identify the mastermind and his associates and arrest them.

Sojib’s lawyer Mohammad Shahidul Islam opposed the remand plea and sought bail for his client. The state opposed the bail plea.

After hearing both sides, the court granted five days’ remand.

According to the case statement, customs officials, the National Security Intelligence (NSI), the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other intelligence agencies searched Biman flight BG-148/AJS at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday following a tip-off.

The flight had arrived in Dhaka from Dubai via Chattogram.

During the search, Sojib was allegedly behaving suspiciously inside the aircraft cabin. When he noticed a Biman junior security officer and other security personnel, he allegedly ran into the cabin and threw away a packet containing gold bars that he had hidden on his body, the case statement said.

The packet was later recovered and found to contain 120 gold bars wrapped in grey cloth.

Tests showed that the bars weighed 13,992 grams, or nearly 14kg, and were 24-carat pure gold, according to the case statement.

The seized gold was estimated to be worth Tk25.2 crore.

A case was filed with Airport Police Station under the Special Powers Act, 1974.