Senior Reporter: Ferrari PK Haldar has been caught in India on charges of smuggling a huge amount of money from Bangladesh.
Khurshid Alam Khan, the chief prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which is prosecuting him in the country, told reporters on Saturday afternoon that they had received information that PK Haldar had been detained in India.
“We have learned about his arrest through various channels,” said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
Prashant Kumar Haldar, also known as PK Haldar, is a former managing director of the private NRB Global Bank.
At the beginning of 2020, it was reported that he fled abroad after looting thousands of crores of rupees by opening various financial institutions including People’s Leasing anonymously.
After that, the ACC started 34 cases against PK Haldar and his associates. In one of them, a charge sheet was also filed in the court.
Though rumors were circulating that PK Haldar had fled to Canada, discussions resumed on Friday when a search for his and his associates’ assets began in West Bengal, India.
News of raids in at least 10 places in West Bengal in search of illicit assets of PK Haldar and his associates came through Indian media on Friday.
The raid was carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), an investigating agency of the Union Finance Ministry, on the houses and properties belonging to PK Haldar’s associates Sukumar Mridha, Pritish Kumar Haldar, Pranesh Kumar Haldar, and their associates.
Mentioning that all of them are Bangladeshi nationals, ED said in a press release that they were found to have properties in different places in West Bengal.
One day later, news of PK Haldar’s arrest came. A video of his arrest has also surfaced on social media.
Asked by reporters in Dhaka, ACC counsel Khurshid said, “We have learned that PK Haldar has been arrested in West Bengal.”
Asked about the process of extraditing PK Haldar, he said, “If he is arrested under any specific law, he will be shown arrested under that law (in India), or he will be extradited to Bangladesh under the Mutual Treaty of India with which we have an extradition treaty.”
Asked by reporters at a function in Dhaka, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said, “Our Home Minister can tell the matter. I don’t know the details. I saw it on the news. It would be better to ask the Home Minister. ”
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal told bdnews24.com: “We have learned about his arrest through various channels. Since there is a case against him in this country, we will bring him. ”
However, he said that there was no official news from India about the arrest of PK Haldar. According to him, the next step will be taken if it is officially known.
Regarding the subsequent process of bringing him back to Bangladesh, ACC counsel Khurshid said, “If he is handed over, he (PK Hawaldar) will be taken to court. The ACC will then ask the court to remand for questioning. The ACC will act in accordance with the court’s own order. ”
He said there were 3 dozen cases against PK Haldar on money laundering charges, each with an arrest warrant.
“She is OK. This is good news for us. Because the pending investigations will be much easier because he has an opportunity to be questioned. “
Along with PK Haldar, his wife Sushmita Saha and his brother were also reportedly arrested in West Bengal.
However, the ED did not make any official comment on the arrest till Saturday afternoon.
Citing an ED press release, PTI said that PK Haldar had also taken Indian citizenship in the name of Shivshankar Haldar by using fake identity cards and national cards like the ‘Ration Card’. He became the owner of huge wealth in West Bengal as an Indian.
EDPK raided Haldar’s associates Sukumar Mridha, Pritish Kumar Haldar, Pranesh Kumar Haldar, and their associates’ houses and properties.
Sukumar Mridha has already been arrested in Bangladesh; He was PK Haldar’s personal lawyer and took care of his finances.
