The Rapid Action Battalion is now on a hunt in the capital and its surroundings for two persons suspected of keeping Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medal, which was stolen from Santiniketan three years and a half ago.
A German living in Bangladesh is also under close watch of the battalion for his suspected link with the persons who reportedly smuggled the medal in the country, the battalion said.
Tipped off, the battalion on Tuesday conducted a raid on a Gulshan market looking for the medal, the sources said.
The battalion took the leads from a telephonic conversation of one Abul Hossain and an Urdu-speaking person regarding the stolen medal, the sources said.
The law men picked up three, including Abul Hossain who owns the Rokhshana Pearls Handicrafts at the market, and two of his employees in this connection.
The law men took the persons to their office and interrogated them about the medal. The two employees were later released, the battalion said.
The battalion members are now looking for the passports of Abul Hossain and his son, Shiplu, who lives in Italy. Abul visited India 60 times in three years and his son visited India and other European countries for several times, the battalion said.
During the interrogation, Abul Hossain admitted talking with an Urdu-speaking person, the battalion said.
‘We are now conducting raids across the city to arrest Shiplu and his friend, Lal Babu, suspected of keeping the medal,’ a high battalion official told New Age on Wednesday.
‘We are closely watching a German for his suspected link with the persons who reportedly smuggled the medal in the country,’ he said.
In 2004, the police in West Bengal said the Nobel medal had been stolen from the Rabindra Bhavan museum, part of Visva-Bharati, founded by Tagore in 1921.
The Nobel medal for literature and the certificate and some personal possessions were taken from a locked glass showcase in the museum.
The Indian investigators did not find any evidence to lead them to crack the case. The Criminal Bureau of Investigation after thee years of futile efforts called off the investigation.
Tagore became the first non-westerner to win the Nobel prize in literature in 1913.
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