Those who were responsible for looking after the Customs Transit Godown at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) might have been involved in the stealing of 55.51kg gold from a highly secure vault.

Police detained four assistant revenue officers (AROs) and four sepoys (security guard), who were on duty during the incident, on Sunday night for interrogation over the incident.

The detainees are AROs Shahidul Islam, Saidul Islam Shahed, Masud Rana and Akram Sheikh while sepoys are Mozammel Haque, Afzal Hossain, Rezaul Karim and Niamat Howlader.

They could not give satisfactory answers to how gold went missing though they were on duty there, said an officer of Dhaka Customs House.

Although police have launched investigation to unearth the mystery behind the disappearance of gold, it will be very difficult to identify the real perpetrators as there was no CCTV camera inside or around the area, say sources.

They said the entire areas of inside the airport are under CCTV coverage but mysteriously no such camera was installed inside the warehouse.

Even, one CCTV camera was found outside the warehouse, but inactive, said a revenue officer, wishing not to be named.

On Saturday morning, customs officers found that 55.51kg gold worth about Tk 45 crore was missing from a locker at Customs Transit Godown-1 at the HSIA, a KPI installation.

Mohammad Sohrab Hossain, ARO (Preventive Team) of the Dhaka Customs House, filed a case against unknown people with Airport Police Station in this regard on Sunday night.

He mentioned that the precious metal was stolen between 12:00am and 8:30am on Saturday.

Gold bars and ornaments that were seized from passengers and aircraft from 2020 till last month have been kept at the locker.

Four teams are carrying out inventory work, Sohrab said, adding that it can be known after conclusion of the work the exact figure of the missing gold.

A senior customs officer told the Daily Sun that the three Customs Transit Godowns at the HSIA are highly guarded.

“Sepoys guard the storehouses round the clock as seized gold and other valuable things are kept inside those. Some assistant revenue officers monitor the lockers at the storehouses,” he said.

“None — even police and intelligence members — can enter the godowns. Even after that, about 55.51 kg gold went missing from a vault at the Customs Transit Godown-1,” said the officer.

“I think the gold was either stolen or embezzled. And the insiders (AROs and sepoys) at the godowns might have committed the crime. It might have been committed gradually or at a single time,” said the customs officer.

Contacted, Morshed Alam, DMP deputy commissioner (Uttara Crime Division), told the Daily Sun that they are yet to find any evidence that can help them trace the thieves.

“None has access to the customs storehouses except the Dhaka Customs House men. What information we have is that none from outside can enter the godowns. It’s not easy to break the vault, from which the gold went missing, without any machine,” he said.

Morshed said, “Each detention memo (DM) had 10 gold bars. If any thief stole the gold, he/she should have taken all 10 bars from a DM. But one or two bars were taken from each DM. Why would a thief employ such a tactic?”

The police officer said it was not clear why the gold was kept at the lockers for a long time.

Commissioner of Dhaka Customs House AKM Nurul Huda Azad said they initiated automation work of the godowns eight days ago.

As part of it, they started counting gold bars and ornaments kept inside the lockers and storehouses.

He thinks the incident took place earlier and a drama of stealing was staged by breaking an almirah or vault to fool the authorities concerned and law enforcers.

Customs Deputy Commissioner Syed Mukaddes Hossain told the Daily Sun that they formed a five-member committee with a joint commissioner as its head on Sunday to look into the incident.

But the committee was reconstituted on Monday by making Additional Commissioner Kazi Farid Uddin as the chief.

The probe body was asked to submit its findings within 15 days, Mukaddes said.

He said they would provide all the necessary support to the law enforcers to trace and arrest the criminals and recover the lost gold.

After the incident, the customs authorities deposited 54kg gold ornaments to Bangladesh Bank (BB).

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court fixed October 15 for submitting the investigation report in the case filed over the incident.