PK Haldar, 6 others arrested in Kolkata

Special Correspondent: Six people, including Prashant Kumar alias PK Haldar, former managing director of NRB Global Bank of Bangladesh and his wife and brother, have been arrested in India. The information was confirmed to the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) of India yesterday.
PK Haldar used to change his name at a house in Ashoknagar, West Bengal – this is what the country’s intelligence agency claims. On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), an investigative agency of the Union Finance Ministry, raided at least nine places in Kolkata and North 24 Parganas. PK is accused of buying property in multiple places in West Bengal with illegal money sent from Bangladesh through hundi.
Besides, Prashant Kumar Haldar alias PK Haldar had fled to West Bengal, India under the false name of Shivshankar Haldar. He procured ration cards, Indian voter ID cards, PANs and Aadhaar cards in West Bengal in the name of Shiva Shankar.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) of India said in a press release on Friday (May 13th) that it was conducting search operations in various parts of West Bengal in search of assets belonging to Prashant Kumar Haldar, Pritish Kumar Haldar, Pranesh Kumar Haldar and their associates. PK Haldar, who fled from Bangladesh, had set up numerous institutions in India under false pretenses. He has bought property in various places including the elite areas of Kolkata metropolis. A search is underway at 10 places in search of his nameless property.
The allegation against Prashant Kumar Haldar is that he used various tactics to buy huge amount of shares from the stock market and took control of at least four non-bank financial institutions by putting various people including his relatives, friends and former colleagues on the board before and after the 2014 elections. He has smuggled huge sums of money abroad in the name of loans from these companies.
Incidentally, Sukumar Mridha, an associate of PK Haldar, was known as a fish trader in Ward 15 of Habra Ashoknagar Municipality in North 24 Parganas District. The real mystery came to light on Friday when the search for financial corruption began.
It is learned that PK Haldar i.e. Prashant Kumar Haldar and Sukumar Mridha are actually long time neighbors of Ashoknagar. It is almost clear to the ED that the NRB Global Bank’s massive financial corruption is the result of a long-running conspiracy between the two.
PK Haldar’s Navjivan Palli has huge luxurious garden houses in that area. Right next to it is another luxurious garden house of Sukumar Mridha. Although Sukumar was known there as a fishmonger, there were frequent questions among the locals about his financial viability.
According to the ED’s investigation, PK and Sukumar bought multiple properties in Ashoknagar alone. On the same day, ED started searching 3 houses in Ashoknagar simultaneously. In one of them lived Sukumar Mridha’s daughter Anindita’s son-in-law. He was interrogated by ED.
On the other hand, ED has also started interrogation of PK Haldar’s relative Pranab Kumar Haldar and his two sons Mithun Haldar and Biswajit Haldar at a luxurious house in Ashoknagar.
The locals knew that Pranab Kumar Haldar was a government employee. His eldest son is working in a private company and his youngest son Mithun Haldar is working as a BSF jawan. They were also on the lookout for assets that were inconsistent with income.
The luxurious house on their four bighas of land has raised questions in the minds of the locals. ED estimates that NRB Global’s illegal money has entered India through hundi. According to sources, the ED is speculating that PK and Sukumar have investments in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and other cities in India. PK and Sukumar, two families, are currently being interrogated by the Central Finance Agency of India.
Apart from this, the couple has several houses and offices in the elite area of South 24 Parganas district adjacent to Kolkata, in the area adjacent to Kolkata’s EM Bypass, beyond the boundaries of Ashoknagar.
The way in which the ED got the traces of the illegal property of the couple in Kolkata, it can be said that the traces of the big money in the NRB Global case are the same. However, it remains to be seen in what process the money for the purchase of this property will return to Bangladesh.