Former NRB Global Bank managing director Prashant Kumar Haldar alias PK Halder has been arrested in India.
Earlier on Saturday, India’s central intelligence agency Enforcement Directorate conducted a search operation in various parts of the country in search of PK Haldar’s associates.
The operation was carried out at the request of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit and Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted simultaneous raids in at least nine places in West Bengal. They have found huge properties of PK Haldar, including houses. Many important documents, including land deeds, have been recovered from the houses.
Indian media also reports on Saturday (May 14).
According to Indian media, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided 10 locations in North and South 24 Parganas of Bengal to nab them, who cheated multiple banks in Bangladesh of several hundred crore Bangladeshi taka and siphoned off the money to India.
PK Halder has been living in Bengal posing as an Indian citizen. He used the name Shibshankar Halder after procuring a ration card issued by the Bengal government, Indian voter ID card as well as PAN and Aadhar card, the ED statement said.
His associates also managed to get similar documents, the agency found during investigation.
ED officials found that the suspects had set up companies in India on the basis of these documents and also purchased immovable property at various places, including Kolkata.
On March 27, a Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against the former managing director of Global Islami Bank (formerly NRB Global) PK Haldar and nine others in a case filed by the ACC on charges of money laundering.
The ACC on January 8, 2020, filed the case against Halder for amassing an illegal wealth of around Taka 275 crore and laundering the money abroad.
According to the case sources, PK Haldar embezzled Tk 3,500 crore from four financial institutions of the country in the name of various companies. These four financial institutions are unable to return the money to the customers as the money is not refunded. The four companies are International Leasing and Financial Services, People's Leasing and Financial Services, FAS Finance and Investment Limited and Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company (BIFC).
BDST: 1643 HRS, MAY 14, 2022
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