Staff Correspondent

The documents of a money laundering case filed against Enamul Haque Khan Dolan, the kingpin of a Dubai-based gold smuggling racket, have reportedly gone missing.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) received a specific allegation of money laundering against Dolan from its counterpart in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit found his involvement in a Dubai-based gold smuggling syndicate.

Earlier in 2019, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) also received specific information about Dolan’s gold smuggling. Later, the BFIU and CIID started investigations against him.

However, a quarter of Awami League leaders -- Tofail Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu and Obaidul Quader -- influenced the investigation through Dilip Kumar Agarwala, the managing director of Diamond World who is currently in jail in a student murder case.

Agarwala is a major partner of Dolan’s gold smuggling business, giving him all kinds of support in this regard.

Dolan has a gold shop named Gold House in Baitul Mukarram Market of Dhaka, according to the sources. He has two other companies -- Sharmin Jewelers and Diamond & Divas.

Since the interim government assumed power, Bangladesh Bank and BFIU have also undergone major changes. Breaking the silence, the BFIU has decided to investigate all terror financing and smuggling allegations.

The financial investigation agency has listed hundreds of individuals and entities suspected of being involved in capital-based gold smuggling. In such a situation, BFIU is embarking on an anti-smuggling operation at any time. However, the customs department remains silent on the issue of Dolan.

CIID Director General Mohammad Fakhrul Alam said the operation is being conducted after receiving specific information about gold smuggling.

Many documents of the gold smuggling and money laundering case of Dolan have gone missing from customs detectives, sources claimed. Dolan distorted the investigation documents in exchange for a bribe worth Tk2 crore.

Dolan has a strong network of illegal gold traders around Baitul Mukarram Market in the capital. He has become the owner of huge wealth through smuggling.

Although he continued illegal business for a long time under the nose of the administration, the deposed Hasina government did not take any legal action against him.

There is no legal import of Dolan’s business even though they buy and sell tonnes of gold. Searching records for several years, no valid data was even for 10 kgs of gold, sources claimed.

While searching for bustling wholesale business without importing, Dubai-based smuggling was reported. After that, a letter was sent to the Special Branch of police asking for the travel information on Dolan.

In response, the immigration police sent the information about Dolan’s foreign travels, which was surprising. It showed that Dolan was travelling to the Middle East almost every week for unknown reasons. His regular destination is Dubai, an elite city known as the Las Vegas of the Middle East. He even travelled there 2-3 times a week.

The immigration police said all passports used by Dolan have foreign travel information.

He travelled abroad 36 times using his passport number BN-0973566. Out of this, he went to the UAE 26 times.

In addition, he went abroad 14 times from 11 November 2018 to 24 June 2019 using passport BX-0734525. Dolan has been to India and Thailand only four times. The remaining 10 times he visited the UAE. Each time he travelled to Dubai for a short period.

Dolan returned home within a day or two. However, from January 2019, Dolan became cautious. He chose a different route to hide his record of travelling to Dubai.

After getting hold of Dolan’s foreign travel information, customs detectives found out that he was a permanent resident card holder of Dubai. For this, the controversial businessman got special facilities at the Dubai airport.

In addition to several houses and flats in Dhaka, he has a huge amount of money in his bank.

Dolan also built a five-star hotel-style elite bungalow in his village home, Narsingdi. For the construction of this house, all fittings and furnishings have been brought from Dubai and Italy.