Body formed to decide whether gold of Apan Jewellers’ customers returnable

Amid complaints from several customers that they lost their money by ordering ornaments from Apan Jewellers, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) today formed a five member body to look into whether their gold is returnable.

About 29 kg out of total 567 kg of gold deposited to Bangladesh Bank on Sunday was ordered by 389 customers in five Apan’s outlets in Gulshan, Uttara, Mouchak and Shimanto Square prior to the CIID’s raids on May 14 and 15.

The committee will submit a report with recommendation within 10 working days after consulting with lawyers and other stakeholders, said Moinul Khan, director general of CIID.

When the CIID confiscated the 567 kgs gold and 7369 pieces of diamond from the outlets, several customers complained that marriage of some of their relatives got stuck for ornaments.

Meanwhile, the CIID officials recently handed over 2.3kg of the gold to customers who had given their ornaments to Apan to have them refurbished.

The CIID official in May went for the crackdown amid allegation by one of the Banani rape victims that the prime accused Ahmed Shafat, son of one of the owners of Apan Jewellers, bragged about being a gold smuggler.

Shafat and the four other accused also boasted about their wealth and said police would not touch them when the two girls warned that they would go to the law enforcers, according to the testimony of one of the two girls.

Invited to Shafat's birthday party on March 28, the two girls went to The Raintree Dhaka around 9:00pm. After the party ended around midnight, Shafat and his friend Nayem Ashraf alias Halim raped them in two rooms, alleged one of the two girls who filed the case.

Shafat, and Nayem confessed to raping the girls while three other accused, Shafat's driver Billal Hossain, bodyguard Rahmat and the victims' friend, Shadman Sakif, admitted their involvement in the incident.