North 24 Parganas: Border Security Force (BSF) along with the South Bengal frontier have arrested two women smugglers and seized six gold bangles worth around Rs 12 lakh at Integrated Check Post (ICP) Petrapole in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, the officials said on Tuesday.
The arrested women have been identified as Meenu Roy Sarkar, aged 42 years, and Swapna Ghosh, aged 52 years, both from West Bengal.
As per the officials, both women were trying to bring the gold bangles from Bangladesh to India in the form of jewellery to avoid the eyes of BSF from ICP Petrapole.
"The weight of the seized gold bangles is 200.98 grams and the estimated value is Rs 12,73,207," officials added. According to information received from BSF, Jawans of 145 Battalion, BSF during their daily duty, at 04:50 hrs on December 25, noticed the suspicious movement of two Indian passport-carrying female passengers.
"When the female personnel of BSF separated both the women and searched them with the help of a metal detector, gold bangles were recovered from their hands, which they were wearing along with other bangles to avoid the eyes of the searching party.
When the documents of the gold bangles were asked from both women, it was found that they were trying to take the said bangles without customs declaration. Soon all the bangles were confiscated and both women were taken into custody for questioning," the officials said.
During interrogation, both women passengers revealed that they were residents of Chhaygaria (Bangaon) and to earn their living, they have been doing courier work for the last few days, under which they go to Bangladesh with chocolates, biscuits, and beauty items.
"On December 25, when both of them were returning to India, a Bangladeshi youth named Saukat in Benpole gave them gold bangles each, which were to be given to some unknown person in Petrapole, for which they would get Rs 1000 each. But while crossing ICP Petrapole, Border Security Force personnel caught him with his gold bracelet during the search," the officials further said.
The arrested women passengers and seized gold bangles have been handed over to the customs office of Petrapole for further legal proceedings. (ANI)
