Trial starts against PK Halder, 13 others

A Dhaka court on Thursday framed charges against 14 people including erstwhile NRB Global Bank’s former managing director Prashanta Kumar Halder alias PK Halder in a case over laundering money and amassing illegal wealth.

Judge Mohammad Nazrul Islam of Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-10 passed the order after rejecting discharge petitions of the accused in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The court also fixed September 22 for recording testimonies of the witnesses.

Alongside PK Halder, his mother Lilabati Halder, Purnima Rani Halder, Uttam Kumar Mistry, Amitabh Adhikari, Pritish Kumar Halder, Rajib Som, Subrata Das, Ananga Mohan Roy, Swapan Kumar Mistry, Sukumar Mridha, Anindita Mridha, Abantika Baral, Shankha Bepari are also indicted by the court.

During the charge framing, Sukumar Mridha, his daughter Anindita Mridha, Abantika Baral and Shankha Bepari, who are now in jail, appeared before the court and they pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after the court read out the charges to them.

However, PK Halder and nine others were shown fugitives in the charge sheet and will be tried in absentia.

This is the first of three dozen cases filed against PK Halder and his associates.

On January 8, 2020, the ACC filed the case against PK Halder and his associates with it Integrated District Office in Dhaka on charges of laundering and amassing illegal wealth of around Tk 275 crore.

PK Halder, the mastermind of a Tk 10, 000 crore banking scam in Bangladesh, fled the country in 2019. He was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement of India along with five other Bangladeshis in Ashoknagar of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on May 13.

He had been staying in West Bengal impersonating himself as an Indian citizen named Shibshankar Halder after fraudulently obtaining various government identities like ration card from West Bengal.

After their arrest, they were placed on remand by the Kolkata court in several phases following petitions of the ED in the case. They are now at jail in Kolkata.

Bangladesh is trying to bring PK Halder back to the country under the bilateral extradition treaty signed in 2016 with India.