PK Halder remanded for 10 more days in India

Industry Desk: A court in India yesterday has granted a 10-day remand to Prashanta Kumar Halder (PK Halder) for allegedly embezzling thousands of crores of money.
After he was taken to a court in Kolkata, the court granted PK Halder a 10-day remand yesterday when the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) appealed for a 14-day remand.
PK Haldar was produced in a Kolkata court this morning after a regular health check-up at the ED’s office. At the end of the medical examination, he was taken to the court through special security measures.
Earlier on Saturday, a search operation was conducted in West Bengal for the second day in search of PK Halder’s property. Later in the day, at around noon, PK Halder was arrested from the North 24 Parganas district of the province and appealed for a remand. The court later granted him a three-day remand.

Lawyers for the ED, the investigating agency of India’s Union Ministry of Finance, briefed the court on the progress of PK Halder’s case yesterday.

At the time, they told the court that PK Halder, a Bangladeshi national living and running a business illegally in India, was interrogated and found a huge asset of him. The initial investigation by the ED has found his assets worth Tk 150 crore in India.

ED officials said PK Halder has not yet given any information on whether any “politician of the province is involved in money laundering from Bangladesh to India illegally”.

According to the ED, with the help of private lawyer Sukumar Mridha, PK Halder has amassed huge wealth in several states of India, including West Bengal. ED has found that he has amassed huge wealth including multiple elite houses in India through smuggling money from Bangladesh.

They also said ED members have already recovered several documents from PK Halder. Initially, these documents contain information about the ownership of about 20 to 25 of his houses in India.

In a statement, the ED said Bangladeshi nationals Prashanta Kumar Halder, Pritish Kumar Halder, Pranesh Kumar Halder and their associates had been arrested. Prashanta Kumar Halder used to introduce himself as an “Indian citizen” named Shiv Shankar Halder.
The Bangladeshi money launderer also collected Indian ration cards, Indian voter ID cards, PANs and Aadhaar cards from the state of West Bengal. Prashanta Kumar Halder’s other associates also collected these Indian cards through forgery.

Earlier, on January 7, 2020, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against PK Halder for acquiring illegal assets worth Tk 275 crore. According to the lawsuit, the fugitive PK Halder had amassed illicit assets worth Tk 426 crore in his name and in the name of fake companies and individuals.

He transacted money through 178 bank accounts to hide the location of illegal assets. PK Halder deposited Tk 6,080 crore in these accounts. Besides, he withdrew another Tk 6,076 crore from these accounts in his name and anonymously.

According to the ACC, PK Halder has embezzled at least Tk 11,000 crore from various organizations.