Bangladesh

Trial of 14 people including PK Haldar has begun PK Halder Trial
Collected PK Halder's girlfriend Abantika being handed over to court after her arrest, (Inset) PK Halder

Trial of 14 people including PK Haldar has begun

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 29 Aug 2022, 11:13 pm

Dhaka, August 29: The court has framed charges against 14 people including former managing director of Global Islami (formerly NRB Global) Bank Prashanta Kumar (PK) Halder in the case of illegal wealth acquisition and money laundering. The formal trial of the case has begun as a result of the framing of the complaint. Judge Mohammad Nazrul Islam of Dhaka's Special Judge Court-10 on Monday rejected the acquittal plea of the accused and filed charges against them.

Apart from PK Halder, the other accused in the case are PK Halder's mother Lilavati Halder, Purnima Rani Halder, Uttam Kumar Mistry, Amitabha Adhikari, Pritish Kumar Halder, Rajiv Som, Subrata Das, Ananga Mohan Roy, Swapan Kumar Mistry, Avantika Baral, Shankha Bepari, Sukumar Mridha and Anindita Mridha. Among them Avantika, Shankha, Sukumar and Anindita are in jail.

According to the source of the case, PK Haldar withdrew Tk 3500 crore from four financial institutions of the country in the name of various companies. Later, as the money was not returned, the four financial institutions faced difficulties in returning the money to the customers. The four institutions are - International Leasing and Financial Services, People's Leasing and Financial Services, FAS Finance and Investment Limited and Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company (BIFC).

PK Halder took control of these companies by buying shares before withdrawing money from those four companies. This financial scam came to light in early 2020. Before this, he left the country in 2019. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against PK Halder on January 8, 2020, while he was absconding, on charges of illegal acquisition and money laundering of around Tk 275 crore. After investigating, the ACC filed a charge sheet in the court against 14 people including PK Halder.

According to the ACC charge sheet, PK Haldar bought 6 thousand 790 percent of land in different places of the country including Dhaka, Narayanganj, Narsingdi. The market value of this asset is shown as 391 crore 75 lakh 81 thousand 12 taka. Currently its market value is Tk 933 crore. Among them, 4 thousand 174 percent bought land in their own name. Its price is shown in the document as 67 crore 94 lakh 20 thousand 930 taka. However, the current value of this asset is Tk 228 crore. Apart from this, there are two flats in the name of PK Halder in Dhanmondi of the capital.