PK Halder on 3-day remand in India

Fugitive Bangladeshi businessman and former NRB Global Bank Managing Director Proshanta Kumar Halder alias PK Halder and five others, who were arrested in Ashoknagar of the Indian state of West Bengal, have been placed on a three-day remand each.  

India’s Bankshall Special CBI Court passed the order after they were produced before it on Saturday midnight, reports our West Bengal correspondent Jyotirmay Dutta. 

According to the BSS, India’s economic intelligence agency Directorate of Enforcement (ED) carried out search operations at various residential buildings linked to Halder’s associates at Ashoknagar of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal in connection with a multi-million taka financial fraud.

Six persons, including PK Halder, were arrested from Ashoknagar on Saturday morning.

PK Halder and his other associates are accused in a multi-million financial fraud in Bangladesh. They have embezzled thousands of crores of Bangladeshi Taka and siphoned them off to India amongst other countries.

On March 1 last year, PK Halder fled Bangladesh through Jashore’s Benapole land port.

According to media reports PK Halder possessed two passports -- one Bangladeshi and the other Canadian -- but used his Bangladeshi passport to go to India.

In January 2021, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed five cases against 33 people, including Halder, for allegedly laundering over Tk 350 crore of International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL).

He had laundered about Tk 80 crore to Canada and amassed about Tk 426 crore beyond his known sources of income.