Bangladesh
Money Laundering Money launderer PK Halder's trial begins in India's Kolkata
Personal correspondent, Dhaka, 17 January 2024: Charges have been formed against six accused, including PK Halder alias Prashant Kumar Halder, the main accused in the case of embezzlement and smuggling of several thousand crores from Bangladesh. Charges were framed against them in Kolkata's City Sessions Court (Bankshall) on Tuesday. Along with that, the trial process against them also started from this day.
The date of taking evidence has been fixed on February 17. PK Halder, his brother Pranesh Halder, Swapan Mistry alias Swapan Maitra, Uttam Mistry alias Uttam Maitra, Imam Hossain alias Eamon Halder and Amana Sultana alias Sharmi Halder appeared before the court on Tuesday after several rounds of judicial custody.
The hearing of this much talked about case was in the court's special CBI Court-3 Judge Subhendu Sahar. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency investigating the case, read out all the charges against the accused separately. At that time, all the accused kept claiming their innocence. Later, the court ordered to start the trial process against them naturally. If the accused had admitted their guilt after hearing the charges, there would have been no need to initiate the trial.
In this regard, ED lawyer Arijit Chakraborty said that since the accused claimed to be innocent, the trial is being started on the charges brought against them. Next February 17, the date of taking evidence has been fixed and the trial will continue. He also said that one of the accused in this case Prithvish Halder (another brother of PK Halder) is currently hiding in Canada. So he could not be included in this case till now. However, the ED continues to try to include him in this trial.
On May 14, 2022, ED arrested PK Halder from Greentech City, Board House 15, Vedic Village, Rajarhat, West Bengal. Besides, 5 more associates of PK Halder were arrested in raids in different parts of the state.
Later on May 21 of that year, a case was filed against them under Money Laundering Act-2002. After his arrest, the court ordered him to be remanded to police custody for a total of 13 days in two rounds. Since then, the accused were in judicial custody several times.
