PK Halder grabs Mushtaq's crocodile farm

Writer Mushtaq Ahmed, who died in police custody on Thursday after almost 10 months of incarceration in a Digital Security Act case, was the entrepreneur and one of the shareholders of the first ever crocodile farm of the country. However, that crocodile farm is now owned by PK Halder. The firm was handed over to him by Mushtaq Ahmed’s business partner Mesbahul Hoque, a former director of AB Bank. PK Halder took control of the crocodile farm when he was the managing director (MD) of Reliance Finance.

The Reptiles Farm Limited in Mymensingh is now one of the prominent owners of non-banking financial institution FAS Finance. PK Halder amassed a huge amount of money from FAS Finance too. After PK Halder’s occupation of Mushtaq Ahmed’s crocodile farm, P&L International Limited, KHB Security’s MD Rajib Shom and his wife Shimu Roy became the owners of the farm. PK Halder also took several huge loans in the name of the Reptiles Farm Limited from different companies, and these are not being repaid.

Meanwhile, PK Halder is on the run now. His partner Rajib Shom also lives in Canada with his family now. As a result, the crocodile farm lies unprotected. After grabbing the farm from Mushtaq Ahmed, PK Halder used its name and land only for getting loans instead of crocodile farming.

This correspondent spoke to Rajib Shom before his departure for Canada last year. He said at that time that PK Halder is the actual owner of the farm. He only owns a little share.

The Reptiles Farm Limited got the approval for commercial activities in 2004 on Mushtaq Ahmed’s initiatives. In 2005, the Equity and Entrepreneurship Fund (EEF) unit of Bangladesh invested Tk 24.3 million (2 crore and 43 lakh) on the firm. In return, the EEF got 49 per cent share of the farm. Among the rest of the 51 per cent share, 36 per cent was owned by Mesbahul Hoque and 15 per cent was owned by Mushtaq Ahmed. The capital of the company was Tk 50 million (5 crore). Mesbaul Hoque and Mushtaq Ahmed were the business directors of the governing body of the farm. Mesbahul Hoque was the chairman and Mushtaq Ahmed was the managing director of the farm.

Apart from this, Pritish Kumar Sarkar, the then official of the Southeast Bank, was the government elected representative of the farm on behalf of the Bangladesh Bank. Pritish Kumar is now the managing director of FAS Finance. Again, the farm is one of the owners of FAS Finance.

When asked about this, Pritish Kumar Sarkar told Prothom Alo on Friday, “Everything is coincidental. I do not know anything about this.”

Before his detention in a case under the Digital Security Act, Mushtaq Ahmed told Prothom Alo last May that Mesbahul Hoque is his uncle. Due to lack of funds he got Mesbahul involved in the farm in 2004. At that time, Mesbahul Hoque was in the charge of director of AB Bank on behalf of Morshed Khan. He handed over the farm to PK Halder and left for abroad in 2013. In the same year, Mushtaq Ahmed was forced to hand over his share of the firm to PK Halder in his own house in Dhanmondi.

On 17 February, 2020, Mushtaq Ahmed wrote on Facebook regarding the change in the ownership of the farm titled as “crocodile farm turned into a so-called company”. He wrote, “3 June of 2010 was a very special day. For the first time, crocodiles were exported from Bangladesh on that day. Two months later, he (company chairman, Mesbahul Hoque) declared that he will sell the company and asked me to sign on a blank paper. I said that it is impossible and problems began to emerge. Then Prashanta (Prashanta Kumar Haldar) came in front. I understood from his words that if I do not agree with him I will lose both – my money and the farm. At one point, I was forced to sell my share.”

Mushtaq Ahmed further wrote, “The chairman (Mesbahul Hoque) was the director of AB Bank back then, so he finished all the infrastructural constructions with full force along with Prashanta without caring for the rules of the bank. All the documents of the company were renewed. Problems arose when the crocodiles got bigger and the number of the crocodiles reached 3,200. Prashanta took loans using the name of the farm to buy lands and shares, but could not sell the crocodiles. He had to flee from the country in the end. No one goes to his well-furnished office in Panthapath except the peons now-a-days. His employees are in hard times. For the last few months, their salaries have not been paid. A simple but gorgeous crocodile farm has turned into a so-called company now.”