Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Thursday observed that somebody has helped Proshanta Kumar Halder, popularly known as PK Halder who allegedly swindled billions from a number of banks and financial institutions, to flee the country.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the observation while hearing a pending writ petition filed by Reptiles Farm Limited and others challenging the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) action to confiscate their bank accounts for allegedly laundering money abroad.
The court also said that the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) notice of travel ban on PK Halder has reached the immigration police immediate after he had left the country.
The HC bench did not continue hearing on the petition yesterday (Thursday) as no lawyer was present for the petitioners.
Lawyer Khusrhid Alam Khan appeared for the ACC, while Deputy Attorney General Sarwar Hossain Bappi represented the state during the court proceedings yesterday.
PK Halder reportedly fled the country through Jashore’s Benapole land port at 3:38pm on October 23 in 2019 less than an hour before immigration police received his travel ban notice.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) sent a letter to the immigration police on October 22 in 2019 so that PK Halder could not leave the country. Immigration police received the letter at 4.30 pm on October 23.
Meanwhile yesterday (Thursday), the same HC bench observed that the ACC “follow the money policy” regarding investigations into cases over Basic Bank loan scams is a wrong concept.
The commission does not need to maintain such policy as it is an independent body and it can conduct investigations into the cases with full independence, the bench said.
The court said this while hearing a bail petition of Mohammad Ali, former general manager of Basic Bank’s Shantinagar branch, in a corruption case involving Tk 200 million.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam told the HC that the ACC has been maintaining the “follow the money policy” in line with the advice of Asia Pacific Group, an anti-money laundering regional body of 41 countries, including Bangladesh, in order to recover the misappropriated money.
The HC bench granted bail to Mohammad Ali as investigation into the case is yet to be completed.
Khurshid Alam Khan told the reporters that Mohammad Ali cannot be released from jail as he is arrested in 11 other cases involving around Tk 3.0 billion.
According to a Bangladesh Bank enquiry, around Tk 45.0 billion was siphoned off from Basic Bank between 2009 and 2013 when Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu chaired the board of the bank.
