The Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday approved a charge sheet against 22 people, including former NRB Global Bank managing director Prashanta Kumar Halder, for embezzling Tk 103 crore from International Leasing and Financial Services Limited.
The commission approved the charges at a meeting of the commission at its headquarters, said ACC public relations officer Akhtarul Islam.
Earlier, deputy director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan submitted the charge sheet on March 20 to the commission in the case filed on January 21, 2021, on charges of embezzlement of Tk聽70.82 crore.
The other accused are Anan Chemicals managing director Amitav Adhikari, its directors Pritish Kumar Halder, Ujjal Kumar Nandi, Purnima Rani Halder, Rajeev, Ratan Kumar Biswas and Omar Sharif, ILFSL former managing director Rashedul Haque, former acting managing director Syed Abed Hasan, vice-president聽 Nahida Runai, assistant vice-president Al Mamun Sohag, senior manager Rafsan Riad Chowdhury and Company secretary Rafiqul Islam Khan, ILFSL directors Nurul Alam, Nasim Anwar, Md Nuruzzaman, MA Hashem, Md Abul Hashem, Zahirul Alam, Anwarul Kabir, Nowsherul Islam and Vashudev Banerjee.
The charge sheet stated that the accused took Tk聽63.44 crore from the ILFSL and the amount stood at Tk聽103 crore along with interest until October 16, 2022 which was embezzled and laundered by the accused.
This is one of the 52 cases filed against PK Halder and 85 other people between 2020 and 2022 in connection with the embezzlement of Tk聽3,400 crore from various financial institutions in the name of companies owned by him and his family.
A Dhaka special judge court on October 8, 2023, sentenced PK Halder, to 22-year imprisonment and 13 others to seven-year jail in a case filed in January 2020 for laundering Tk 80 crore to Canada and amassing about Tk 426 crore illegally.
The investigations are still underway in rest of the cases filed against Halder and his associates.
PK Halder came to limelight during the anti-casino drives in 2019. The commission launched an investigation into the involvement of 43 people in the illegal casino business in Bangladesh.
PK Halder allegedly embezzled more than Tk聽10,000 crore after he had received loans from various financial institutions in the name of companies owned by him and his family.
On October 22, 2019, the commission issued a travel ban on PK Halder, but he managed to flee the country.
A commission probe team, led by its deputy director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan, found registration of at least 14 organisations, which PK Halder used to avail the loans and launder the money, with just two addresses.
PK Halder and his five associates, accused of money laundering in India鈥檚 West Bengal, were arrested in North 24 Pargana district on May 11, 2022. Halder is now in an Indian jail.
They have been charged with using the money he looted from banks in Bangladesh to buy real estate properties in and around Kolkata.
The commission and top government officials had promised to bring PK Haldar back to the country from India as soon as possible. There is, however, no visible progress in this regard till now.
