Zakir Naik, who is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for money laundering, has received crores of funds from Gulf countries, Zee News reports on May 25. Indian agencies have been pursuing Naik, who is currently based in Malaysia, also for delivering hate speeches allegedly used to incite terror activities. Sources close to developments have revealed that despite New Delhi’s persistent efforts, Malaysia is reluctant to hand over Naik to New India.
In the most recent instance, Naik is said to have contacted one of his old contacts in Qatar and requested him for a generous amount of USD 500,000 as a charity to his organisation. It is also learnt that the Qatari national has been helping Naik contact local wealthy businessmen and charity organisation for the collection of funds.
Naik continues to maintain several bank accounts in Gulf countries, including Qatar and the UAE, for collection of such funds to evade scrutiny of the Indian government. He generally uses these accounts to transfer funds to his associates and network for activities by Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and other associated organizations. The Indian government has since put a five-year ban on IRF.
At the same time, Pakistan has also been using its relations with Turkey and Qatar countries to organise funds for Naik. It is to be noted that Pakistan maintains good relations with both Qatar and Turkey. In the last few years, relations between Qatar and Turkey have turned stronger and Turkey has been using its influence on Qatar to take an anti-India stand.
Naik is involved in the preaching of radical Islamic ideology that has influenced the youth in India and abroad in an adverse manner and some of them are found to have been motivated to join extremist organisations such as Daesh/ Islamic State (IS).
Naik, left India in 2016 and subsequently moved to Malaysia, which has reportedly granted permanent residency to him. Naik was booked by the Enforcement Directorate in 2016, based on a National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) FIR that was registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).