Kolkata:

The Border Security Force (BSF) claims to have arrested a civil engineer and seized 50 gold biscuits from his possession in the North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal.

“Acting on specific intelligence inputs, troops of 5 Bn BSF, posted at the Tentulberia Border Outpost, carried out a search in the Anchalpara village. The village is located about 2,700 metres behind the BOP. On spotting the BSF troops, a man attempted to flee through the back door of his house. Despite warnings, he attempted to break through the BSF cordon, till a jawan fired a blank round in the air. The man panicked and gave up,” said N K Pandey, DIG and spokesperson, South Bengal Frontier, BSF.

He added that a search of the accused led to the recovery of a black cloth belt wrapped in a synthetic carry bag, adding that the 50 gold biscuits were found inside.

“He, along with the gold, was taken to the Tentulberia BOP for further investigation. During interrogation, the man claimed that he is a civil engineer who had taken to smuggling to earn easy money,” said DIG Pandey.

He said that the engineer confessed that he would receive consignments of gold from across the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB), keep them for a few hours, and then hand them over to an unknown carrier.

“He claimed that he received Rs 500-1,000 per delivery. He apparently received the 50 gold biscuits on Monday morning, but the BSF swooped down before he could pass them on,” the DIG said.

The man, along with the gold, was handed over to officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Kolkata, for further legal proceedings.

DIG Pandey while lauding the effort of the BSF team, urged the border population to share any information related to gold smuggling through the BSF’s Seema Sathi Helpline 14419 or send voice of text messages to the WhatsApp number 9903472227.

He also assured that informants would be rewarded, and their identities kept confidential.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)