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Tagore medallion theft: one held

— File Photo: AFP

Replica of Tagore’s Nobel medallion.

Dhaka: Security forces have arrested a man suspected to be an aide of the prime suspect in the theft in India of the Nobel Prize medallion of poet Rabindranath Tagore.

The arrest could lead to solving the case, officials said on Sunday.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh arrested Mohammad Hossain Shiplu (32) from Azimpur area here, believing him to be a close aide of Jiban Singh, the prime suspect in the theft case.

The Indian authorities had earlier informed their counterparts here that they believed the stolen medallion had been taken to Bangladesh.

Suspecting both to be members of an international artefact-smuggling syndicate, CID sources said they had information that Shiplu was providing shelter to Singh in Bangladesh. The medallion and its certificate as well as some personal possessions of the poet were stolen from the museum of Visva Bharati University.

Sweden’s Nobel Foundation offered two replicas of the medallion to the university in 2005. The elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion in November last carried out a massive security drive to recover the medallion after arresting a suspect of an international antique smuggling racket. “We are sure that we are on the right track in our investigation but need some more clues,” said a senior RAB official. — PTI

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