The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), with the help of the Border Security Force (BSF), nabbed a gang of 27 Bangladeshi “smugglers” carrying betel nuts of Myanmar origin weighing over 70 metric tonnes and valued around Rs 5.5 crore
after they sneaked into Indian territory on Wednesday morning.

The gang entered India through a porous riverine stretch of the Indo-Bangladesh border in the Sunderbans delta near Hingalganj of North 24-Parganas.

Sources said the alleged smugglers were travelling in two motorised boats carrying 1,152 sacks of betel nuts when a surveillance team of the BSF attached to the 118-Battalion intercepted them near the Shamshernagar area.

The 27 smugglers and the seized betel nuts sacks were handed over to the directorate of revenue intelligence, a wing of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the Union ministry of revenue, which arrested them and began a probe .

The smugglers were produced in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court by the DRI in Basirhat, which remanded the accused in 13 days’ judicial custody.

Government counsel Abhijit Biswas said: “The accused persons have been charged under Section 135 of the Customs Act. Preliminary investigations revealed that two of the smugglers are associated with an international smuggling racket.”

BSF sources said acting on intelligence input about the suspected movement of some speed boats in the Sunderbans area, a special team was formed to intercept two Bangladeshi boats near Moore Island after they entered Indian territory.

A spokesperson for the BSF’s south Bengal frontier in Calcutta said: “During interrogation, pilots of both the boats confessed that they had been asked by Bangladeshi a smuggling racket operator to deliver betel nuts sacks to an Indian counterpart at Jharkhali ghat of the Sunderbans in South 24-Parganas and had given 20,000 Bangladeshi taka for the job.”

“Betel nuts from Myanmar and adjacent areas of Bangladesh are very good in quality and have great demand in the paan and gutka industries in India,” said a DRI official.

The smugglers with the support of their Indian counterparts sell these betel nuts to gutka industries in Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, and Delhi.

The betel nuts are sold at higher prices than the local variety available in the country,” the DRI officer said while adding that demand for such betel nuts has increased during the last couple of years.

Bangladeshi arrested

A 27-year-old Bangladeshi was nabbed by the sixth battalion of the BSF in Cooch Behar district on Tuesday evening.

Md. Sabbir Madbor from Shariatpur district of Bangladesh was nabbed while he was roaming in the general area of Dhaprahat market, which is near the India-Bangladesh border.