Eight gold bars worth Tk 40 lakh were seized from a luggage of a Dubai-returned passenger at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong city on Friday morning.
However, the custom authorities released the passenger, Mohammad Osman, who came from Sharjah, Dubai, after seizing his passport and the gold bars, said Assistant Commissioner (AC) Moshiur Rahman Mandal of Chittagong Customs House.
He said they found the bars as attached beneath a pot in Osman’s luggage after searching it when he arrived at the airport in an Air Arabia flight around 10:00am.
A case was lodged with Patenga Police Station in this connection, added the AC.
Existing law allows a passenger to carry highest 200 grams of gold from abroad on payment of the required duty fee at the airport while a passenger can bring highest two kilograms of gold with a prior notice to the authorities and paying duty fees, as per the notification by Bangladesh Bank.
According to the customs, about 2,500 gold bars worth about Tk 125 crore were seized from the airport in this year.
