A team of nearly 20 Mumbai police officers has been put in place to look into Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik’s speeches.
A team of nearly 20 Mumbai police officers has been put in place to look into Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik’s speeches. This team was formed after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a probe into the speeches of the preacher following reports that his talks had triggered one of the terrorists to carry out an attack against foreigners in Dhaka, Bangladesh recently.
A Mumbai police officer revealed that the special branch of the Mumbai police had been handed the investigation. “A team of 15 to 20 officers from the special branch are conducting enquiries in the Zakir Naik case right now,” he said. The enquiry is being headed by an additional commissioner rank officer.
Dr Naik (50) is the founder of the Islamic Research Foundation and preaches via Peace TV and various online channels. While the channel is banned in India, many cable operators allegedly make it available on subscription basis to users. The televangelist has been mired in controversy after a recent terrorist attack in Dhaka where nearly 20 people were killed. The Bangladesh government has alleged that Mr Naik’s speeches inspired the attackers to go through the attack.
Talking about the investigation, he said that the policemen had started scanning through Dr Naik’s sermons.
“The officers are collecting all the data available, this includes videos available online and recorded in CDs that Naik distributes. These are available with his office and his followers and we are locating all of them,” the officer added.
Sources reveal that the preliminary enquiry will be completed in a week. “Once the preliminary investigation is done, we will submit a report to the chief minister’s office,” he said.
When asked if they had contacted Dr Naik as part of the investigation, the officer said that would come at a later stage. “Naik will be summoned to present his side if we find anything substantial from the speeches. We may call him towards the end of the enquiry,” he said.
Officials revealed they were also going through past records to see if Dr Naik had any cases against him.
“In 2013, a case was registered against him in Kurla alleging that he hurt religious sentiments.
But he got an anticipatory bail in the case and the case has been in limbo since,” said an officer.
