Border Security Force (BSF) personnel seized 30 gold biscuits, weighing 3.5 kilos and worth around Rs 1.72 crore, from a truck driver when he was leaving the Petrapole international cargo port in North 24-Parganas on a motorcycle on Monday.

The accused, identified as Suman Tarafdar, 29, is resident of Jayantipur of Petrapole. Also arrested with him was his alleged associate Aashiq Haldar, 23, who was riding pillion. Aashiq hails from village Kalyani.

Both the youths were handed over to the customs department along with the seized gold. The duo were then taken into police custody.

Suman is associated with a Calcutta-based transporter and drives trucks to Bangladesh, the police said.

A BSF spokesperson of South Bengal Frontier said Suman had gone to Benapole in Bangladesh with export items on July 15.

On Monday, he returned without the truck apparently owing to illness.

“When he was leaving on his motorcycle that had been parked at the ICP Petrapole parking lot, our team became suspicious. He was stopped near the railway crossing and frisked. Our personnel found the gold biscuits strapped around his waistline,” the spokesperson said.

During questioning, Suman confessed to have received the gold biscuits from one “Karim bhai” in Benapole to hand them over to members of an alleged smuggling racket on the Indian side of the border, BSF sources said.

“He said he had been offered Rs 1,000 for the job,” the BSF spokesperson added.

Arun Kumar, commanding officer of 179 battalion, got in touch with customs officials at ICP Petrapole with an appeal to prevent smuggling by persons involved in import and export as well as cross-border movement of vehicles.