Apan's 495kg gold to end up in BB

Customs Intelligence decided to confiscate around 495kg of gold of Apan Jewellers as it failed to show valid documents for the gold.

The gold would be deposited to the Bangladesh Bank.

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“Five teams will seize the gold at five outlets tomorrow [today] as they [Apan Jewellers] could not show any valid document even though they were given time thrice,” said Moinul Khan, director General of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, last night. 

The CIID officials held 498kg of gold and some diamonds from five outlets in Gulshan, Uttara, Mouchak and Shimanto Square on May 14 and 15. The authorities kept the ornaments at the respective outlets, in accordance with the rules, and asked the shop authorities to bring the documents to the CIID office.

There was no transparency regarding the gold worth around Tk 250 crore, said an official concerned.

The CIID officials recently handed over 2.3kgs of the gold to customers of Apan Jewellers. They had given the ornaments to Apan Jewellers to have repairs done.

The CIID official in May went for the crackdown amid allegation by one of the Banani rape victims that the prime accused Ahmed Shafat, son of one of the owners of Apan Jewellers, bragged about being a gold smuggler.

Shafat and the four other accused also boasted about their wealth and said police would not touch them when the two girls warned that they would go to the law enforcers, according to the testimony of one of the two girls.

Invited to Shafat's birthday party on March 28, the two girls went to The Raintree Dhaka around 9:00pm. After the party ended around midnight, Shafat and his friend Nayem Ashraf alias Halim raped them in two rooms, alleged one of the two girls who filed the case.

Shafat, and Nayem confessed to raping the girls while three other accused, Shafat's driver Billal Hossain, bodyguard Rahmat and the victims' friend, Shadman Sakif, admitted their involvement in the incident.