Gaibandha temple president remanded

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday arrested the president of the Sri Sri Radha Gobinda and Kali Temple in Gaibandha’s Palashbari upazila in a money laundering case involving Tk 9.35 crore.

Haridas Chandra Tarani Das, 43, was arrested from the temple shortly after midnight and taken to Dhaka, said Palashbari Police Station Officer-in-Charge Sarowar Alam Khan.

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The CID later produced him before a Dhaka court, seeking a seven-day remand. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ripon Hossain granted a four-day remand, said a sub-inspector of the Prosecution Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Haridas was escorted to the courtroom under heavy police security. He was wearing handcuffs, a red T-shirt, a lungi, a bulletproof vest and a helmet. Police removed his handcuffs and helmet after he was placed in the dock.

During the hearing, the prosecution argued that Haridas had laundered crores of taka and that further interrogation was necessary to uncover details of the alleged financial transactions.

Defence counsel Shyamal Kumar Roy opposed the remand and sought bail, claiming, “My client has been arrested in a false case. There is no evidence against him of money laundering or illicit financial transactions.”

Rejecting the defence’s arguments as false and fabricated, prosecutor Kabir Hossain said the CID had arrested Haridas based on evidence and required his remand for further investigation.

Standing in the dock, Haridas denied wrongdoing. “I previously worked in agriculture and now manage a temple. If a devotee gives me money to spend for the satisfaction of God, how is that my fault? Is building a temple my sin?” he told the court.

The temple has recently drawn attention over a proposal to build an 80-foot statue of Lord Ram.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council condemned Haridas’s arrest in a press release and demanded his immediate release.

According to the first information report (FIR), the CID’s Organised Crime (Financial Crime) Unit filed the case with Uttara West Police Station late Sunday under Section 4(2) of the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.

The FIR alleges that Haridas and two or three unidentified accomplices operated a hundi network between January 1, 2020, and June 30 this year.

In a press release, the CID said it launched its investigation after receiving allegations involving government jobs, transfers, hundi operations and organised crime.

Investigators found deposits totalling Tk 9,35,32,451 from “suspicious sources” into five bank accounts and four mobile financial service wallets belonging to Haridas.

The CID alleged Haridas had no known lawful source of income and that the deposits were proceeds of hundi transactions, which were later transferred and converted to conceal their origin before being used to acquire movable and immovable assets.

The agency also alleged that Haridas falsely identified himself as a “protocol officer to the then prime minister”, using edited photographs and fake phone-call records to gain people’s trust.

Investigators also found information about an earlier case filed against Haridas with Banani Police Station in Dhaka under the Digital Security Act and several sections of the Penal Code, the CID said.