BSF, RPF seize goods worth Rs 1.50 crore from Dhaka-bound Maitri Express

The Border Security Force (BSF), and Railway Protection Force (RPF), in a joint search operation, seized products worth Rs 1.50 crore from Maitri Express train that connects Kolkata to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two Indian passengers, having valuable mobile phones, and other items, were caught.

The seized goods comprising cosmetics, clothes, sarees, expensive mobiles, and other items, are worth Rs 1,51,84,964, an official update stated. The seizure was made at Gede Railway Station, the last station on the Indian side, in West Bengal’s Nadia district. 

The BSF troops, under South Bengal Frontier, along with the RPF jawans, backed by concrete information, searched the train in the morning, on September 20 when the train was on its way to Bangladesh, and had reached Gede railway station. The force’s dog squad was also at the spot.

“Subsequently, during the search, the troops found a large number of expensive smart phones and sarees in the possession of two Indian passengers and interrogated both the passengers in this regard. During interrogation, the passengers could not show any valid documents of the luggage they had brought with them.  The troops immediately caught both the passengers on the spot who were trying to smuggle the said goods from India to Bangladesh through (the) train,” the official update mentioned. Eighty-three smartphones, 26 mobile adapters, 48 data cables, besides other items, were found in the possession of the passengers.

The search also led to seizure of a large quantity of cosmetics, household items – without owners. Smart phones, keypad mobiles, sarees, suits, women's and men's clothes, artificial jewellery, trimmers, expensive bottles of English liquor, expensive mobile chargers, electronics, and medicines, figured in the seizure.

The passengers, apprehended, admitted that the items they carried were bought from New Market in Kolkata. The goods were to be handed over to a resident of Dhaka, for which the (apprehended) passengers would have got Rs 3,000 each.