The two assistant revenue officers (AROs) responsible for overseeing the Dhaka Customs House warehouse at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) have been found to be involved in the theft of 55.5kg gold, police said.

"AROs Saidul Islam Saheed and Shariful Islam have been in charge of the warehouse since November 10. They have been pilfering gold for the last eight months. It has also come to light that security guard Niamat Howladar aided and abetted the duo in stealing the gold," Tohidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of the Uttara Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star yesterday.

All three are in custody and the case has been transferred to the Detective Branch (DB) of police, he said.

Contacted, Md Akramul Hossain, the deputy commissioner of the Uttara Division of DB, said that they were yet to receive the case documents.

Regarding departmental actions against the three, Minhaj Uddin, joint commissioner of Dhaka Customs House, told The Daily Star that a

nine-member committee has been formed to probe the incident, and actions against the individuals responsible will be taken according to the committee's recommendations.

Police also claimed to have found evidence linking a top customs official with the gold theft. The official was supposed to monitor the AROs and the warehouse.

"We are now verifying the evidence on the official's role," said a police official, requesting anonymity.

The official said that they checked CCTV footage between 12:15am and 8:30am on September 2 to know when the locker inside the warehouse was broken into.

"But we did not see anyone entering from the front. We suspect that someone was sent inside from the back to make it look like a theft incident," the officer explained.

The police are now collecting footage from the cameras located in the rear of the warehouse.

Regarding the involvement of the AROs, another police official involved in the investigation claimed that Saidul and Shariful used to take a portion of the seized gold from the locker and sell it.

The seized gold items were supposed to be given back to the owners upon payment of fines and taxes.

Sources in an intelligence agency said Saidul and Shariful tried to place gold bars inside the locker after the matter of six gold bars going missing came to light on August 13.

On August 23, the duo again placed around 1.5kg of gold inside the warehouse that had been seized, the sources said, adding that they have footage supporting this.