Biman staffer sent to jail after remand over Tk25.2cr gold seizure
Soaib Kazi Sojib was sent to jail after completing five days in remand in a case over the alleged smuggling of nearly 14kg of gold.
A Biman Bangladesh Airlines staffer has been sent to jail after completing five days in remand in a case over the alleged smuggling of nearly 14kg of gold worth Tk25.2 crore through Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
The accused, Biman assistant technical helper Mohammad Soaib Kazi Sojib, was produced before the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarah Farzana Haque's court today (11 September) after completing his remand.
The prosecution sought an order to keep him in jail, and the court passed the order following the application, said Abu Bakkar Siddique, a sub-inspector of the prosecution department.
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According to the detention plea, Sojib is an active member of an international gold smuggling syndicate and has allegedly been involved in smuggling gold from abroad for a long time, evading customs duties and causing substantial losses to the government.
The prosecution said keeping him in custody was necessary for a proper investigation into the case.
Earlier, the court had placed Sojib on five days' remand on 6 September.
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 on 5 September 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. After noticing a Biman junior security officer and other security personnel, he allegedly ran into the cabin and threw away a packet containing gold bars he had hidden on his body.
The packet was later recovered and found to contain 120 gold bars wrapped in grey cloth.
The bars weighed a total of 13,992 grams, or nearly 14kg, and were found to be 24-carat pure gold. The seized gold was estimated to be worth Tk25.2 crore.
Jamil Sarwar Ahad, an assistant revenue officer of Customs House, filed the case with Airport Police Station under the Special Powers Act, 1974.
