HC turns down Zakir Naik’s plea for probe papers and passport

In a major setback to the controversial televangelist Zakir Naik, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected his plea seeking the case papers pertaining to the probe against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

A division bench of Justices Rajendra Savant and Revati Mohite-Dere also refused to direct the ministry of external affairs to hand over Naik’s passport to him so that he could return from Malaysia.

“We cannot entertain such a plea filed by the petitioner (Naik), who is booked under several serious offences. We are unable to grant any relief to the petitioner since he has not cooperated with the investigating agencies. Instead of returning to India and cooperating with the probe, the petitioner has ensconced in Malaysia,” Justice Savant said.

“We also cannot issue any direction for the cancellation of revocation of the petitioner’s passport since he is already declared as a proclaimed offender. We also cannot ignore the fact that the extradition proceedings to bring him back from Malaysia have already been initiated by the authorities in India, thus we cannot grant him such a relief,” Justice Savant said in his orders. In his plea, Naik had sought a direction to the NIA and the ED for handing over the ‘status’ of the probe that the agencies have been conducting against him. He also sought a direction to the agencies not to arrest him and instead, interrogate him through videoconferencing. He had cited the revocation of his passport as a reason for his failure to come to India and join the investigations.

The ED and NIA, represented by advocates Hiten Venegaonkar and Sandesh Patil respectively, opposed the plea. Naik is facing probes by ED and NIA after his ‘sermons’ on his Peace TV channel were cited as a reason by Bangladesh for an attack in Dhaka, which left 22 people dead. His NGO — Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) — has also been declared unlawful since 2016 and is being probed by the ED over allegations of money laundering to the tune of more than Rs 18 crore. He has accordingly been booked for inciting enmity between two religious groups and also for being a member of an unlawful association, abetting an unlawful activity and for hatching a criminal conspiracy.