Dhaka, May 17 (PTI) Vital inputs shared by Bangladesh with Indian agencies led to the arrest from West Bengal of fugitive Bangladeshi money launderer Proshanta Kumar Haldar, accused of perpetrating bank fraud in India, India’s High Commissioner here said on Tuesday.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Sunday it had arrested six Bangladeshi nationals, some of them “disguised” as Indians with fake IDs, as part of a cross-border money-laundering investigation.
The arrested included the “mastermind” of the group, Haldar, accused of perpetrating a bank fraud in the neighbouring country to the tune of 10,000-crore Bangladeshi taka.
The ED produced them before a court on Saturday after it conducted raids on May 13 on 11 premises linked to Bangladeshi nationals across the state of West Bengal.
Responding to a query from reporters on Haldar’s arrest, High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said: “This is your (Bangladesh) government that shared information with the (Indian) agencies who examined the information and led to the arrest of Halder,” he told the media after a meeting with Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen at the foreign ministry here.
Asked when the financial scam kingpin would be extradited to Bangladesh, Doraiswami said it would take some time.
“This involves legal procedure. He was arrested on a holiday last week. We will inform Bangladesh based on the information that we have. You need to understand that this is not an exchange of Christmas cards… So let that happen slowly,” Doraiswami said.
His remarks came as Bangladesh sought Haldar’s extradition even as an Indian court has ordered that he be kept in police custody for 10 days along with four others, including his wife who is from West Bengal.
Foreign Secretary Momen told the media that Dhaka was expecting full cooperation from India in bringing back Haldar so that he can face a trial.
“During our meeting (with the Indian envoy), I raised the issue of PK Haldar. He assured me to provide all kinds of cooperation regarding the issue,” he said.
Bangladesh’s ministry officials earlier said an extradition treaty between Dhaka and New Delhi could ease the way for Haldar’s return.
They acknowledged that it could take some time as he was facing charges in India, including taking refuge in the country using a fake identity and managing to get an Indian passport and national identity card.
Bangladesh’s Attorney General AM Aminuddin said the Anti-Corruption Commission and Bangladesh Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit earlier sent the required information to Indian authorities.
“You will see, soon he will be returned home to face justice,” he said.
The ED said on Sunday: “Halder was found in the disguised identity of an Indian citizen as Shibshankar Halder”.
“It was found that Proshanta Kumar Halder along with his associates ‘fraudulently’ obtained Indian government-issued identities such as ration card from the state of West Bengal, voter ID card, PAN (permanent account number) and Aadhaar card,” it said.
“ED has ascertained that these Bangladeshi nationals have also managed to float companies in India on the basis of fraudulently obtained identities and have even purchased properties in West Bengal,” it said.
The case, it said, is an “offence of cross-border implication under the anti-money laundering law as Proshanta Kumar Halder has been found to be accused in approximately 10000 crore Bangladesh taka worth bank fraud in Bangladesh and alleged to have siphoned off money outside Bangladesh to various countries.” PTI AR MRJ AKJ MRJ
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