Indian law enforcers seek PK Halder in 3-day remand

The Indian law enforcement agency has sought three-day remand for PK Halder at a local court following arrest, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah has said the government agency would try to bring former NRB Global bank managing director Prashanta Kumar Halder alias PK Haldar back to the country from India as soon as possible.

"We are glad that a criminal has been caught. Now we will try to bring him to the country quickly. This is our only job," he said.

The ACC chief expressed satisfaction over the arrest of PK Halder on Saturday (14 May) by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), an investigative agency of the Indian finance ministry.

PK Halder, who has been charged with embezzling over Tk11,000 crore, was hiding in a house in Ashok Nagar in the North 24 Pargana district.

Earlier in the day, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said he will be handed over to Bangladesh under the Bangladesh-India extradition treaty.

PK Halder had been living in West Bengal posing as an Indian citizen. He used the name Shibshankar Halder after procuring a ration card issued by the West Bengal government, an Indian voter ID card as well as a PAN and Aadhar card, an ED statement said.

According to the ACC, PK Halder has swindled at least Tk11,000 crore from various organisations.

Sources at the ACC said the amount of swindled money they so far learned about during the investigation of the case may increase.

PK Halder has embezzled around Tk3,500 crore from ILFSL, Tk2,200 crore from FAS Finance, Tk2,500 crore from Reliance Finance and Tk3,000 crore from People's Leasing.

According to ACC records, PK Halder, when he was the managing director of Reliance and an independent director of several other leasing companies, along with his relatives, misappropriated Tk3,500 crore from several leasing companies, including People's Leasing.

Halder sold assets of all these companies and took away all the money by selling the shares from the share portfolio of the depositors.

In May 2021, a businessman filed a case with a Chattogram court against four people, including PK Halder, seeking compensation of Tk930 crore.

The same year it was found that PK Halder had also swindled Tk1,300 crore from FAS Finance in the name of several companies that existed on paper only.

In August of this year, the ACC filed a money laundering case against PK Halder and his associates on grounds of laundering Tk36.37 crore.

The embezzlement came to light after the ACC investigated the casino owners' assets back in 2020.

PK Halder allegedly also siphoned off Tk1,000 crore to Canada, Singapore and India, the ACC investigation revealed.