Along with Indian ID cards, passports of three countries were found in possession of Prashanta Kumar Halder (PK Halder) after his arrest in West Bengal.
The passports were of Bangladesh, India and the Caribbean country Grenada. India’s central intelligence agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) sources disclosed this information.
In West Bengal, ED found trace of 11 houses, plots of land and business establishments belonging to PK Halder who was involved with money laundering in Bangladesh.
The agency believes he has a lot more property in West Bengal. Preparation is being taken for raids, along with PK Halder, in search of the rest of his property, said related sources.
PK Halder fraudulently extracted at least Tk 35 billion (3,500 crore) from various financial institutions of Bangladesh. He fled the country towards the end of 2019, when the news spread everywhere. He started buying property in India the very same year.
ED officials of West Bengal believe a hefty part of Halder’s money is still in Dubai. Money was wired to both West Bengal and Dubai using the 'hawala' or 'hundi' network.
ED on Sunday disclosed the names of the six persons they arrested on Saturday including PK Halder. The list of the arrested includes Pranesh Kumar Halder, who used to partially oversee PK Halder’s land, houses and fisheries in North 24 Parganas. Pranesh is related to PK Halder.
Another one of the arrested persons, Swapan Maitra alias Swapan Mistry, had helped in transferring PK Halder’s money to India through 'hawala'. Apart from them, there are Uttam Maitra alias Uttam Mistry, Imam Hossain alias Eamon Halder and Amana Sultana alias Shormi Halder.
Of them, only the five men have been taken into custody for questioning till 17 May by ED, through a special court related to money laundering act of 2002. Amana Sultana has been put under judicial custody (jail).
Based on primary investigation, a source of ED informed this correspondent that all the six of the arrested are Bangladeshi citizens and were doing business after opening several companies in India using different ID cards. They had bought land, houses and fisheries (large ponds) at different places.
Sources informed Prothom Alo that the investigation of this case can go to India’s central intelligence agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) within a few days.
Officials of the Indian home ministry believe this case requires comprehensive investigation due to its magnitude, ‘cross border implications’ and the issue of laundering such a massive amount of money.
Purchasing property in West Bengal started in 2019
Based on the information derived from interrogating those five including PK Halder, a source related to ED said PK Halder fled to Dubai after his scams were exposed. He came to West Bengal in 2019 and started investing in fisheries along with his chief accomplice Sukumar Mridha.
Fisheries business is highly profitable in southern parts of West Bengal adjacent to Kolkata. This region includes North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas, adjacent to Bangladesh border.
ED has not yet found full information on all the fisheries that had PK Halder’s investments. Officials of the agency believe it will take quite some time to collect information of all of his property.
It has been learnt that PK Halder had brought many of his relatives and accomplices to India, way before 2019. They then started buying land and fisheries. Sukumar Mridha was the chief among them. He had been PK Halder’s income tax lawyer in Bangladesh.
Sukumar was able to create a network among the businessmen, land brokers and fish traders of North 24 Pargans and South 24 Parganas. However, it is not yet clear to the investigators whether Sukumar had formed the network himself or it was PK Halder, who had made him do it according to prior plan.
Investigators also believe it is somewhat clear now that PK Halder and Sukumar Mridha’s associates had connection with political leaders of West Bengal. Sukumar Mridha is currently behind bars in Bangladesh.
Different sources of India say, it is being assumed that unofficial discussion about PK Halder had been going on between related authorities of Bangladesh and India for quite a few days. It was done using the existent protocol on exchange of criminal intelligence between the two countries.
However, ED has not yet said anything official in this regard. The Indian government also has not officially informed the Bangladesh government about the arrest till Sunday.