Court sentences PK Halder to 22 years in jail

A Dhaka court Sunday jailed runaway PK Halder for 22 years for amassing ill-gotten wealth and laundering money, with an observation that money-launderers are "enemies of the nation".

His 13 associates were also convicted of abetting Proshanta Kumar Halder or PK Halder in these twin acts of pecuniary offence and imprisoned for 7 years each.

The jail sentences against the principal convict will run one after another and so he will have to stay in jail for 22 years -- 10 years for corruption related to amassing wealth and hiding information thereof and 12 years for money laundering.

His abettors -- who include his family members and friends -- have to serve their two jail sentences analogous or concurrently. They got three years over the hiding of wealth information and four years regarding money laundering.

PK Halder, who has been held in Indian jail on similar charges, is among ten of the convicts tried in absentia. The remaining four were in the dock, and sent to jail after the court verdict.

Halder was also fined a king's ransom -- Tk 10.44 billion -- in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission over the laundering of Tk 800 million to Canada and amassing about Tk 4.26 billion illegally

Judge Mohammad Nazrul Islam of Dhaka Special Judge's Court-10 delivered the judgement in a crowded courtroom, with the observations that "money- launderers are the enemies of the nation and they should be collectedly resisted in national interest and for the sake of country's ongoing economic development".

"In fact, there is no ideology of money-launderers like accused Proshanta Kumar Halder and they do not cherish any ideology," the court said, adding that they "illegally build a mountain of wealth" hindering the country's development.

Consequently, accused Proshanta Kumar Halder, the former managing director of NRB Global Bank, "deserves no leniency in greater interest of the state", the court said in the first verdict on a major money-laundering case.

"The persons who have illegally built second home abroad actually do not love the country. Indeed we have to love our country, and with the spirit of our liberation we have to resist money-launders," Judge Islam further said in an elaborate deliberation on a much-talked-about syndrome of the day.

"It is a matter of great regret that the Mutual Legal Assistant is still pending albeit the same was sent to Canada long ago. A state cannot alone resist money-launders without the cooperation of the developed countries. The offence of money laundering in our country may be resisted with the effective cooperation of international community and creating awareness among the citizens of our country," the judge said.

"Proshanta Kumar Halder, the accused, hailed from a modest background in Dighirjan village of Nazirpur thana in Pirojpur district. His mother worked as a primary schoolteacher. Despite being a brilliant student at BUET and the University of Dhaka, Proshanta Kumar Halder chose a different path. Instead of contributing to the country's development, he succumbed to the lure of accumulating wealth unlawfully. With the assistance of his mother, brother, and close friends, Halder established numerous fictitious companies, amassing a vast amount of illegal wealth," the court said.

The punishment of PK Halder starts the day he will be extradited from India, the court said.

The 13 other convicts are Sukumar Mridha, a lawyer of PK Halder, Sukumar's daughter Anindita Mridha, associate Abantika Baral and cousin Shankha Bepari; PK Halder's mother Lilabati Halder and brother Pritish Kumar Halder, and his associates Purnima Rani Halder, Amitav Adhikari, Rajib Som, Subrata Das, Ananga Mohon Roy, Uttam Kumar Mistri and Swapan Kumar Mistri.

Runaway Halder was arrested in Ashoknagar, India, on May 14 last year on charges of money laundering, media reports said.

He stands accused in over 40 other graft and money-laundering cases.

The four who stood in the dock to receive the verdict are Sukumar, Anindita, Abantika and Shankha. They were earlier arrested.

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