The Border Security Force (BSF) on Thursday night seized 41 kg gold estimated at Rs 21.22 crore from near Bongaon in North 24-Parganas, while it was being smuggled to India from Bangladesh.

The seized items include 321 gold biscuits (24 carats), four gold bars, and a gold chain weighing 41.50 kg, all of which were being ferried to India on a country boat over the Ichhamati river.

The suspected smugglers, however, could not be nabbed as they managed to flee.

BSF’s South Bengal Frontier’s DIG (G), Amerish Arya, claimed that this was the “biggest single seizure of gold” by any Indian law enforcement agency deployed along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

A spokesperson of the BSF said a team of the 158-battalion attached to Gunarmath border outpost intercepted the boat on Thursday night. “We carried out an ambush in the target area of the international border along the river Ichhamati late in the evening. Our personnel witnessed about half a dozen people sailing on a country boat trying to sneak into the Indian territory. They had some bags with them. Our personnel challenged them, but they jumped into the river leaving their bags and managed to flee,” the spokesperson said.

On May 25 this year, the BSF had seized 12 kg gold worth around Rs 6.15 crore from two locations near Petrapole in North 24-Parganas.

In a separate incident, the BSF attached to 82 battalion seized Bangladeshi currency amounting to Rs 31.52 lakh in Indian money from a house in the Gongra area of Chapra in Nadia district on Friday morning.

A suspected Indian smuggler Abhirul Mollah, 34, has also been nabbed in this connection.

He was allegedly assigned by a racket operator to send the money to Bangladesh.

Sanjay Prasad Singh, commanding officer of the battalion, stated that Mollah confessed that he had been carrying out cross-border smuggling for the last three months. “He has been handed over to Chapra police,” he added.