PK Halder wants to return home

PK Halder, who is currently on a three-day remand ordered by an Indian court, wants to return home to Bangladesh. He was speaking to the media while being taken to the Enforcement Directorate, India's economic intelligence agency, after a routine medical check-up. 

The scamster along with his five associates will be produced in court on Tuesday when the remand ends. 

Six people, including PK Halder and his lawyer Sukumar Mridha, were arrested on Saturday from Ashok Nagar area of India's North 24 Parganas district. The other four arrestees are PK Halder's wife, brother Pranesh Halder and two other persons. According to information available to the Enforcement Directorate, PK Halder laundered around Tk300 crore from Bangladesh to India. 

In the meantime, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Dhaka is working on having the scamster, charged with siphoning off several thousand crores of taka, extradited to Bangladesh.

The anti-corruption watchdog has maintained contact with Interpol, Bangladesh's High Commission in India and Bangladesh's Home Ministry to bring back all the accused, ACC Secretary Mahbub Hossain told a media briefing at ACC headquarters in the capital. 

After receiving information about the arrest of six people, including PK Halder, in India, the National Central Bureau (NCB), Interpol's regional office in Dhaka, sent an email to its counterpart in Delhi asking it to extradite the accused from India along with the five others, he noted.

The ACC will take more measures to bring the accused former NRB Global Bank managing director back to the country. A letter will be sent to the Bangladesh diplomatic mission in India and the Home Ministry with respect to the repatriation, Mahbub added.

The ACC will again send a letter to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit to get info on the laundered money and bank accounts of the accused, he also said.

Mohiul Islam, assistant inspector general of the NCB, said, "We have not yet received any reply to our letter sent to Delhi. Our next course of action now depends on what information they provide us. The issue is on a government-to-government level and the Foreign Ministry will decide the next measures after getting to know of the situation from India officially."

Meanwhile, the High Court has fixed Tuesday for hearing the pending suo motu (voluntary) rule issued around one and half years ago over the government's move to arrest PK Halder and bringing him back to the country.

State prosecution informed the HC about the arrest of PK Halder in India and sought a hearing date in this regard.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque then fixed the hearing date on the matter.

Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin presented the matter in court in accordance with the HC move.

At one point during the proceedings, the court said, "Our message is clear. We have zero-tolerance against corruption and money laundering. No one will be spared, no matter who they are."

Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan was also present at the court representing the ACC.

"The HC earlier issued a rule over government steps to bring PK Halder back to the country and arrest him. Following the issuance of the rule, there was a red notice issued by Interpol for his arrest. We came to know through the media that PK Halder had been arrested in India. So we brought the issue to the attention of the court and requested a hearing on the rule."