ACC for arresting PK Halder thru Interpol

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) wants to bring back the fugitive director of International Leasing and Finance Service Limited (ILFSL), Prashanta Kumar Halder, to the country through the help of International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL.

ACC lawyer, Khurshid Alam Khan, said, "We are set to file a petition with the High Court, seeking permission to arrest the fugitive through Interpol and bring him back to the country to face the music."

He disclosed this while talking to reporters at the Supreme Court in the capital on Sunday.

Khan said, "PK Halder's lawyer informed us through e-mail that he is ill, without providing any supporting medical documents. His lawyer also informed us that he had not received any copy of the court order. But such communication has no legal value. He is a fugitive and he has defamed the court. He will be brought back to the country with the assistance of Interpol."

"In our petition to the HC, we will request the court to instruct the relevant government organisations to arrest PK Halder with Interpol's assistance," he added.

On Saturday, Attorney General, AM Amin Uddin, told The Business Standard, "PK Halder e-mailed his lawyer, Mahafuzur Rahman Milon informing him that he would not be returning to the country as previously scheduled. Milon informed it to me."

Earlier on Wednesday, an HC bench, consisting of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarker alone, passed an order instructing the relevant authorities to arrest PK Halder upon his return to the country and produce him before the related court.

Until last week, his lawyers claimed that he would return on an Emirates flight at 8:10am on Sunday.

On 20 October, during a hearing over a petition seeking his safe return to the country, his lawyers informed the HC that he would return after five days.

"He has already bought his ticket," they told the court.

According to sources, PK Haldar, the alleged mastermind behind one of the biggest financial scams in the country's history, fled the country in October last year, despite an ACC travel ban. 

On 21 January last, in response to a petition filed by several investors over the siphoning of Tk3,500 crore, the HC ordered the seizure of bank accounts and passports of 19 accused, including ILFSL director Halder.

According to the ACC investigation, Halder has embezzled at least Tk11,000 crore from various organisations and financial institutions. 

Amongst the institutions, he and his accomplices misappropriated around Tk3,500 crore from ILFSL, Tk2,200 crore from FAS Finance, Tk2,500 crore from Reliance Finance, and around Tk3,000 crore from People's Leasing.

It goes without saying that there is no mortgage against all this money taken in the name of loans. As a result, the ACC says, there is almost no chance of the loans getting repaid.