Bangladeshi businessman and former NRB Global Bank managing director PK Halder has been arrested in Indian state of West Bengal.
Indian intelligence arrested him this morning from a home in Ashoknagar in India. A few other people were picked up with him but it is not clear whether they were arrested with him.
PK Halder recently has come to India from Canada. Bangladesh authorities informed the matter to Indian authorities.
The news of his arrest came a day after the Directorate of Enforcement, a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency of India, had conducted drives in at least nine places in West Bengal on Friday to find properties of Prasanta Kumar Halder.
The DE is responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India.
Several Indian media reported that DE conducted the drives after it obtained information from Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission that PK Halder laundered huge money to India and built properties through his relatives in the neighbouring country.
An ACC director on Friday night confirmed New Age that they had sent a letter to the DE in this regard and keep the matter secrete for the purpose of the investigation.
‘Though several media reported that DE conducted raids and found several luxury houses and other properties in different parts of West Bengal, we [ACC] have not get any information yet,’ the ACC official had said.
According to the ACC, the commission so far issued notices to 33 individuals of the PK Halder syndicate to submit statements of their assets.
Among them, 13 are yet to submit statements and cases will be filed against them as well, he added.
The commission has also frozen the bank accounts of 83 individuals accused of being associates of PK Halder.
Moreover, assets worth Tk 1,000 crore have also been attached while travel bans have been slapped against 64 accused, ACC said.
On January 5, 2021, the High Court slapped an international travel ban on 25 people, including the family members of PK Halder and SK Sur, a former deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, for their alleged connection with Halder.
According to the ACC charge sheet, PK Halder accumulated an illegal wealth of Tk 426 crore, laundered Canadian dollars to the tune of Tk 1.17 crore and was involved in suspicious transactions of about Tk 6,080 crore with various banks.
On October 22, 2019, the ACC also issued a travel ban on PK Halder, but he managed to flee the country through Benapole Land Port, said an ACC official.
