Online casino: Salim Prodhan sentenced to 8 years in jail

The court sentenced online casino kingpin Salim Prodhan to 8 years in prison and fined 1.1 million taka in the case of acquiring wealth outside known income and money laundering.

Judge Badrul Alam Bhuiyan of Dhaka Special Court-8 rendered this verdict on Sunday. The accused's lawyer Shahinur Islam confirmed this to Prothom Alo.

Salim Prodhan was brought to court from prison before the verdict was announced. Mosharraf Hossain Kajal was the state prosecutor.

After Salim Prodhan was arrested from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on 30 September, 2019, RAB raided his homes in Gulshan and Banani and his office too. They seized 2.9 million taka, a large quantity of foreign liquor and currencies of different countries in that operation. Later, the ACC filed a case against Salim on 27 October 2019, on charges of acquiring assets outside of known income and money laundering. After the investigation, the ACC submitted the charge sheet to the court on 17 January, 2021.

In the charge sheet, Salim Prodhan has been charged with illegal acquisition of more than 577 million taka and money laundering of 219.9 million taka.

The case statement said, Salim Prodhan acquired and possessed tangible assets worth 4.7 million taka and intangible assets of 573.1 million taka by illegal means, which is a punishable offense under the ACC Act.

The deputy director Gulshan Anwar of the ACC is the investigation officer of the case. He said that Salim siphoned illegally earned 219.9 million taka to Thailand and the United States, which is a punishable crime under section 4(2) and 4(3) of Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.