A February 23 meeting of key conspirators in a plush Jessore hotel was followed by another confabulation in a Dhaka diplomatic enclave house of a former MP in early March this year, as part of the plot to allegedly murder Bangladesh Awami League MP Anwarul Azim Anar, Northeast News has reliably learnt.
While Northeast News refrains from identifying the former Awami League MP, inquiries over the last one week reveal that the first plan to “get rid of” Anar was set in motion at Hotel Zabir Jashore, which is owned and operated by the parliamentarian who also has stakes in the Bangladesh-India multi-crore gold smuggling.
While New York-based Bangladeshi American national Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen was a key person who took part in the Hotel Zabir Jashore meeting, the others included two former MPs, including the one from Jessore, and two Juba League leaders.
The identity of one of the Juba League leaders is known to Northeast News, which is being withheld for legal reasons.
This Jessore Municipality councillor is said to be “extremely close” to the former MP, but more importantly he figures in the Border Security Force’s reports prepared following the interrogation of at least two Bangladeshi couriers involved in gold smuggling in Jesssore.
“His name figures in our interrogation reports,” a BSF officer in Kolkata said.
Cross-border crimes and smuggling of gold and contraband figured prominently during meetings between senior BSF and Border Guards Bangladesh officers over three days (June 22 to 25).
While the Anar murder case and its likely motive – to wrest control of the deep-seated gold smuggling activities from the MP – were not subjects of discussion during the BSP-BGB meetings, sources said “there has been a marked spike in gold smuggling along the India-Bangladesh border over the last three months.
BSF documents reveal a startling increase in the volume of gold intercepted at specific points on the border over the past five years. In 2019, the BSF seized merely 7.526 kg of gold (mainly biscuits).
The next year, the seizure rose to 32.919 kg to dip to 30.426 kg in 2021 before rising to 111.32 kg in 2022 and 160.693 kg in 2023. Till June 28, 2024, the BSF seized 113.419 kg of gold on the border.
“Gold smuggling has gone up in the last three months and this trend has been reported by other Indian security agencies deployed along the India-Bangladesh border, especially in the North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts (on the Indian side) and the corresponding Jessore, Jhenaidah and Chuadanga districts in Bangladesh,” a senior BSF officer said.
The officer disclosed that while gold is the preferred “item” that is smuggled into India, drugs and other narcotic substances, including Phensedyl, is pushed into Bangladesh. Both Phensedyl and ganja, BSF sources said, are pushed from India into Bangladesh and command “huge margin”.
BSF investigations and interrogation of Bangladeshi ‘couriers’ active on the border have thrown up the name of an Indian national, identified as Subhash Agarwal, as a key collaborator of Anar who is alleged to have amassed huge wealth through gold smuggling and hundi operations.
Subhash Agarwal is also linked Baranagar-based Gopal Biswas who was Anar’s host on May 12 this year. Anar left Biswas’ house in the afternoon of May 13 and was reported missing on May 18.
Subhash Agarwal’s nephew, identified as Pankaj Agarwal (son of Paban Agarwal) of Majhdia (in Nadia district and close to the Gede-Darshana border point) was named in a First Information Report (FIR) on May 4, 2024, for trying to smuggle Phensedyl syrup to Bangladesh. The FIR was lodged at Krsihnanagar police station.
BSF files show that Subhash Agarwal lives in both Kolkata and Majhdia and “funds the gold smuggling” in the Nadia border town.
Paban Agarwal’s son Rocky was arrested by Krishnanagar Police in an NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act in May 2024. He runs Phensedyl’s “wholesale business” in Majhdia.
Another relative, identified in BSF files as Pappu Agarwal (also of Majhdia), was arrested in an NDPS Act case some time ago and served 18 months in jail.
Seven other persons – two from Etah and Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh and the other five from different locations in Nadia – were also named in the FIR.
BSF sources said besides Goga and Putkhali border points in Jessore and Maheshpur in Jhenaidah, Chuadanga in Bangladesh is the “third most important” zone for gold smuggling.
BSF officials suspect Anar’s alleged ‘murder’ in a New Town apartment in Kolkata last month was the result of a gang rivalry centred around Chuadanga.
These officials said that Anar’s murder was executed at the behest of a Chuadanga gold smuggler, Shahdat, whose brother-in-law was killed last year by criminals allegedly engaged by Anar.
However, Bangladesh Police sources said that the meeting at Hotel Zabir Jashore was followed by a second assembly of the main conspirators of Anar’s alleged ‘murder’ in the former Jessore MP’s house located at Baridhara’s diplomatic enclave in early March.
The first meeting was attended by the Juba League activist (besides a second one) and a Jessore ward councillor. This councillor may have been instrumental in engaging a few of the Bangladeshi nationals, barring Shimul Bhuiyan alias Syed Amanullah, Celeste Rahman, Mohammad Siyam Hossain and Tanveer Bhuiyan alias Faisal, said to be involved in Anar’s alleged ‘murder’.
Indian security agency sources said that the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch’s “case” to turn Anar’s alleged ‘murder’ as an outcome of political rivalry appeared to be in opposition to “the evidence on the ground” which indicated a “definite link” to gold smuggling.
In this context the sources said that while previous attempts had been made on Anar’s life, the conspirators sought to eliminate him following his ‘victory’ (third in a row) and consolidation over cross-border smuggling. “After the January 7 election, Anar tried to become independent,” an official said.
