The soft bed, fancy cabinet and costly furniture was just the tip of the iceberg of the treasure stashed away in a Purana Paltan flat raided by the Custom Intelligence and Investigation Department (CIID) yesterday.
Beyond the glossy exterior of the well-appointed furniture lay a staggering amount of wealth hidden in every conceivable nook and cranny, so much so, in fact, that it took five sacks to collect it all.
A CIID search of the flat, assisted by Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), yesterday yielded local currency amounting to Tk4.5cr in cash, Saudi and UAE denominated currency worth Tk15 lakh and 528 gold bars weighing 61.5 kilogrammes having an estimated local price of Tk20cr.
Around 10:30pm, at a press briefing held at its Malibagh office, CIID Director General Mainul Khan said: “Mohammad Ali has been under surveillance for a long time. He has long been suspected of involvement in the hundi and gold smuggling businesses.”
His passport shows several visits to Dubai, the official said, and investigators will look into his travel, contacts, possible links to Biman officials recently arrested for gold smuggling and a Sirajganj upazila chairman that Mohammad Ali claims is the owner of the gold.
“Officials began the operation around 5pm at Apartment 7, House 29/1, Purana Paltan owned by Mohammad Ali and recovered the valuables after conducting the drive for nearly two hours,” DMP Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said officials retrieved the gold bars from under the bed and wardrobe. A search of dolls, steel wardrobes [almirah], steel drums to store rice in, and showcases turned up bundles of currency notes that required almost five sacks to contain.
DC Masud said in addition to the recovery of valuables, officials retrieved several passports from the house and conducted a drive on another apartment also belonging to Mohammad Ali, but that raid yielded nothing of interest.
According to officials, each of the 528 gold bars weigh 10 tolas. Of the recovered currency notes, most is local currency but some of it is denominated in United Arab Emirates Dirhams and Saudi Arabian Riyals.
Deputy Director of Custom Intelligence and Investigation Department Mostafizur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune his agency had known about an illegal currency, gold and hundi business being run from the house for some time.
He said before starting the drive, flat owner Mohammad Ali claimed he had 235 Saudi Riyals in his house but the drive yielded a huge sum of money hidden away in holes inside the wardrobe and even in holes inside the walls of the house, he said. Officials said counting the money took some time because they “have to note down the serial numbers of the bills.”
Mohammad Ali, the flat owner, said there was around Tk4cr in his hoard of cash. But he said the gold bars that the CIID officials recovered do not belong to him.
Mohammad said Sirajganj Sadar Upazila Chairman Riaz Uddin, a close associate, asked him to hold the gold in his house for him. He said he did not know anything else about it.
Asked about the currency, Mohammad said he was a businessman and the owner of Ali Sweets in the capital’s Dhanmondi neighbourhood. He said he had a property development company called “Sava.”
He said as a businessman he needed available cash and because transferring or carrying money to and from the bank is not safe, he keeps a large amount at home. A member of the National Board of Revenue, Fariduddin, said at the briefing that the operation was a success and such drives would increase.
Asked about filing a case in this regard, CIID Deputy Director Mostafiz said Mohammad Ali is in custody and will be shown arrested once a case is filed after the money is recounted.
No case had yet been filed in this regard when the report was written at 11:55pm.
