High Court gets 394 BB officials’ names over PK Halder probe

The Bangladesh Bank has submitted a list of its 394 officials of three departments to the High Court for an investigation into any possible affiliation between them and Prasanta Kumar (PK) Halder, former managing director of International Leasing and Finance Service.

The officials have been working since 2010. Of them, 147 are working in the Department of Financial Institutions and Markets, 57 in the Financial Institutions Inspection Department, and 190 in the Internal Audit Department.

Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik said the list was submitted to the virtual bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukdar and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim on Monday.  

The High Court then asked the authorities concerned to explain how Halder had fled abroad despite the confiscation order on his passport. It also asked to be informed of the progress on the cases against him.

Besides, the court ordered the Bangladesh Bank to submit by 15 March the full list of employees working in the three departments since 2008.

The court further ordered the authorities concerned to submit a list of officials who were in charge of immigration at the airport and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on the day Halder fled the country.

During the hearing, Advocate Md Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the ACC, Deputy Attorney General Amin represented the state, and Barrister Khan Mohammad Shamim Aziz was the counsel for the Bangladesh Bank.

Earlier on 21 January, the High Court directed the Bangladesh Bank to provide the names, titles, and addresses of the officials who were in charge of the three departments from 2008 to 2020.

At the same time, the central bank was asked to inform the court by 15 February whether these officials had failed to curb money laundering at that time and whether any action had been taken against those who failed to perform their duties.

The central bank asked for time to prepare the list of employees who worked in 2008 and 2009 as their information were registered manually back then.

It also said an investigation was going on to find out about the fraud and money laundering.

On 19 November last year, the High Court took suo moto action and sought information on the steps taken to bring back and arrest Halder after a report titled "The ACC will seek the Interpol's help in apprehending PK Halder" was published in a national daily on the previous day.

Halder is accused of laundering thousands of crores of taka.