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PLFS is one of the four NBFIs from which Halder, a former MD of NRB Global Bank and Reliance Finance, swindled at least Tk3,500 crore
A group of people, allegedly believed to be rogue banker PK Halder’s close associates, illegally entered into the locked-up premises of People’s Leasing and Financial Services (PLFS) located in Paramount Heights at the capital’s Purana Paltan.
PLFS is one of the four NBFIs from which Halder, a former MD of NRB Global Bank and Reliance Finance, swindled at least Tk3,500 crore.
The premise has been bolted shut for a year now as the non-bank financial institution is in the process of liquidation.
At 2.24 am on January 12 this year, eight men broke into the office,where various official documents including computers were arranged on the office desk, shows closed-circuit television footage. Dhaka Tribune is in possession of the footage.
Kabir Mustaq Ahmed, a former top executive of PLFS and one of PK Halder’s close associates, was in the group, said an official of PLFS seeking anonymity.
In 2019, the Bangladesh Bank froze all bank accounts of Ahmed and the other directors and top officials of the NBFI.
The group of people tried several times to grab the floor space of PLFS and some present PLFS assisted them in entering the office premises, the official said.
The floor space in Paramount Heights is PLFS’s own assets. But another office of PLFS in Dhaka is open for administrative work.
Such type of activities isin direct violation of the High Court order as the HC had said only the provisional liquidator shall be able to take any step by applying his due diligence, as and when necessary for protecting the papers, equipment and all other assets of PLFS.
The finance ministry in June 2019 instructed the central bank to close the PLFS for its failure to improve its conditions, which was the first liquidation process in Bangladesh’s financial sector in line with the Financial Institutions Act, 1993.
Then, the central bank appointed Md Asaduzzaman Khan, deputy general manager of the BB’s financial institutions department, as the liquidator of the NBFI as per the High Court order.
Dhaka Tribune correspondent found the PLFS office in Paramount Heights closed yesterday and another office in the capital’s city centre was open.
Only 20 officials of PLFS are now working at the NBFI and they are being paid by the liquidator as per the HC order.
Besides, two security guards are keeping watch at Paramount Heights to secure the locked office space, he added.
“The office has been closed for a long time — these are old facts and there are adequate security arrangements now,” Khan told Dhaka Tribune.
(DT)
