Woman held for smuggling gold near Indo-Bangla border

Kolkata: A woman was caught red-handed by the Border Security Force (BSF) for smuggling gold ornaments worth over rs 21 lakh near the Indo-Bangla border in Nadia on Saturday afternoon. Lalita Mandal (30), the accused, is a resident of Duttapulia at Dhantala in Nadia.

At around 2.40 pm, the BSF troops of ninth battalion, deployed at the temporary gate of unfenced area of village Haritalapara, Kalupur ahead of Indo-Bangladesh Border Road, spotted her moving suspiciously. The woman, coming from hinterland, was walking towards village Haritalapara near the international boundary.

A BSF team checked her and found a handbag in which she was carrying 136 pieces of gold ring, 20 pieces of  bracelet.

The jewellery weighed 650.080 grams which is worth `21,12,760. A smartphone and `1,375 in cash were also recovered from her bag.

During questioning Lalita confessed that the booty was handed over to her by a man, Sameer Paul near Duttapulia Government Hospital and she was going to hand it over to his relative near a primary school of Kalupur but his relative did not meet her, the BSF South Bengal Frontier said in a statement.

The BSF handed over Lalita along with her cellphone and cash to the Dhantala police and the seized booty to the Customs at Majhdia.