PK Halder Granted Bail in Kolkata as Bangladesh Fails to Provide Documents

News Desk

Prashant Kumar (PK) Halder, accused of embezzling billions from Bangladesh, was granted bail by the Bankshall Court in Kolkata along with two associates, Swapan Kumar Mistry and Uttam Kumar Mistry, on Friday. The court set their bail at 10 lakh Rupi bonds each.

Arijit Chakraborty, the counsel for India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), explained that the court granted bail due to Bangladesh’s failure to submit the conviction judgment against Halder and his associates. “The court granted bail on the grounds that the judgment copy from Bangladesh confirming their conviction has not yet been produced,” Chakraborty said.

The court has set January 9 as the next hearing date.

PK Halder has been under investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) since 2019 for alleged financial irregularities amounting to thousands of crores of Bangladeshi taka. On January 8, 2020, the ACC filed cases against Halder and his associates for acquiring assets worth approximately Tk 275 crore through illegal means.

Initially reported to have fled to Canada, Halder’s whereabouts came to light in May 2022, when India’s ED launched a raid to locate him and his associates. On May 14, Halder and his associates were arrested in Vedic Village, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. They were charged under India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Since his arrest, Halder has been detained in Kolkata’s Presidency Jail, while his female associate, Amina Sultana, was held at Alipore Women’s Correctional Home. The ED accused him of running a network of shell companies to siphon off and launder money.

Halder, the former Managing Director of NRB Global Bank, faces 34 cases in Bangladesh for illegally amassing wealth and laundering money. In one such case, a Dhaka court sentenced him to 22 years in prison on October 8, 2023. However, the lack of timely documentation from Bangladesh has impeded progress in the Indian legal system.