Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn) has detained a man with 32 gold bars, weighing around 4 kilograms, from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

The arrestee has been identified as 34-year-old Jonathan Mukti Barikder who has been working as cleaner at Biman Bangladesh Airlines from 2014.

He arrested from concourse hall of the airport on Thursday (Feb 13) around 9:20am.

Confirming the matter, APBn Additional Superintendent of Police (SP) (operations and media) Alamgir Hossain said an Emirates flight arrived in Dhaka from Dubai at 7:55am.

“The plane was docking in board-in bridge number 7 to offload aircraft crew and passengers. Then, Jonathan went in to clean the aircraft and came out after doing his work,” he said.

“However, Jonathan got locked in a heated debate with APBn members when they wanted to search him. Later, he was brought to the APBn office and 32 gold bars were recovered from inside his shoes,” he added.

During primary interrogation, Jonathan revealed that another colleague named Mamun handed him the gold bars from the flight. Later, he went into the plane’s toilet and hid the bars inside his shoes, said Alamgir.

He said Jonathan supposed to hand over the gold bars to his duty in-charge Atique and expected to receive Tk 25,000 for the job.

The market value of the seized gold is estimated to be Tk 18.5 million, he added.