A team of the Border Security Force (BSF) seized around 17 kilos of gold bars, worth around Rs 10.25 crore, while they were being smuggled into India from Bangladesh through a porous stretch of the international border near Rangahat in North 24-Parganas

The BSF nabbed 27-year-old Ajar Mandal, a resident of Rajkol, who was hired to send the bars from a source in Bangladesh to an assigned destination at Bongaon in North 24-Parganas.

Both Mandal and the seized gold were handed over to Customs in Calcutta for further legal proceedings.

On Saturday, the BSF authorities attached to the 68 Battalion received an intelligence tip-off about a gold smuggling attempt. The surveillance teams under the Ranaghat border outpost were accordingly informed. The BSF authorities formed two teams for vigil.

"The patrolling jawans noticed a motorcyclist approaching the Indian side. Our personnel intercepted the biker and began frisking him when they found the gold bars concealed inside a special belt (worn by Mandal). Our personnel immediately arrested him and seized the gold bars which weighed 16.7 kilos," said the BSF's South Bengal Frontier's spokesperson Amerish Arya.

Later, during interrogation at the border outpost, accused courier Mandal, who claimed to be a farmer by profession, confessed that he recently joined a smuggling racket to overcome "financial problems".

"He revealed that one Alam Mandal of Bangladesh had given the gold bars to him to hand over to a network person active in Bongaon. But he was caught on the way," a senior BSF official said.

BSF authorities said that till the end of October, the force had seized 150 kilos of gold being smuggled into India. In September, a patrolling team had seized around 23 kilos of gold from the Ranaghat area alone.

"This is a big success in gold seizure made possible due to the sheer alertness of our personnel,” said Arya.

BSF officials said, however, that despite their alertness smugglers had been regularly changing their modus operandi and desperately trying to trap poor persons to work for them.

"We have been trying our best to make people aware so that they are not trapped (by smuggling rackets). At the same time, we have also introduced a dedicated phone number with WhatsApp, so that they can share information about any such luring offer or about any smuggling attempt that they come to know," said a senior BSF official in Calcutta.