PK Halder: ACC delayed travel ban to help him flee

The High Court has blamed the Anti-Corruption Commission for the failure to arrest PK Halder before he managed to flee the country.

It said the ACC helped Halder escape by making a delay of 13 hours in issuing a travel ban on him.

"By doing the delay, you have given him [Halder] the scope to leave the country " an HC bench told ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan during a hearing yesterday.

Proshanta Kumar Halder, also known as PK Halder, is accused of embezzling and laundering a huge amount of public money from some non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). He fled the country on October 23, 2019.

The ACC reportedly sent the travel ban notice to the immigration office 13 hours after deciding to issue the notice. Those 13 hours were enough for Halder to flee, the bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman said yesterday.

The bench was holding a hearing on a 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.

Lawyer Khurshid told the HC that the ACC sent PK Halder's travel ban notice on October 22, 2019, through the postal service, and the notice reached the immigration department within 24 hours.

The commission did not do any negligence in taking steps to prevent him from leaving the country, he told the court.

The HC bench said there are internet services now, the notice could have been sent within a few moments using the services.

How 13 hours' time was needed to sent the notice from the ACC headquarters to the immigration office, the court asked, expressing astonishment.

Khurshid said the ACC sent the notice following all the relevant procedures.

The bench said it will resume hearing on the petition next week as no lawyer was present for the writ petitioners yesterday.

Deputy Attorney General Sarwar Hossain Bappi represented the state during the court proceedings.

PK Halder, former NRB Global Bank managing director, who has allegedly siphoned around Tk 10,200 crore from some NBFIs, reportedly fled the country through Jashore's Benapole land port at 3:38pm on October 23, 2019, less than an hour before immigration police received his travel ban notice.

Meanwhile yesterday, the same HC bench said the ACC "follow the money policy" regarding investigations into cases over BASIC Bank loan scams and it was wrong.

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 filed in 2015.

The HC granted bail to Mohammad Ali as investigation into the case is yet to be completed.