The High Court has ordered the authorities concerned to submit a list of government officials who helped Prasanta Kumar Halder, mostly known as PK Halder, escape from Bangladesh.
The officials in question belong to the immigration department, police, and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim passed the order during a hearing on Monday. Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the ACC and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state, reports Bangla Tribune.
The court also set March 15 for submitting a list of Bangladesh Bank officials involved in the financial scams with Halder.
On January 21, the High Court had sought the list of the central bank officials who worked from 2008 to 2020.
At the time, the court also wanted an explanation of why they failed to prevent the money laundering. It ordered the central bank authorities to submit a report in this regard within February 15.
PK Halder, former managing director of NRB Global Bank and Reliance Finance Limited, is currently in Canada, where he is believed to have laundered more than Tk10,000 crore.
The court on Monday also wanted to know the action ACC has taken against the individuals whose names came up in the statements of the accused pertaining to the PK Haldar cases.
On January 8, 2020, the ACC filed a case against Halder on charges of amassing about Tk275 crore beyond his known sources of income.
On December 3, 2020, the Canadian authorities informed the Bangladesh government about Halder's Canadian holding address.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued a red notice against him on January 8 this year, following a request from Bangladesh Police.
The move came after the High Court on November 19, 2020, asked the government and the ACC what steps were being taken to bring him back to Bangladesh.
On January 14 this year, the ACC froze Tk1,057 crore from the accounts of 62 associates of PK Halder on charges of being involved in his money laundering scams.
