A day after the Mumbai police officially launched an investigation into controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s speeches, his legal team has also started to scan through all his sermons and footage availa
A day after the Mumbai police officially launched an investigation into controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s speeches, his legal team has also started to scan through all his sermons and footage available. These developments come in place after the chief minister on Thursday ordered a probe into Naik’s speeches.
Speaking to The Asian Age, Naik’s lawyer Mubin Solkar said that they were preparing a dossier of all his speeches. “We have started scanning through his speeches, books and CDs available. We are doing this so that if any investigation agency approaches us, we can hand it over for investigation,” he said.
Advocate Solkar added that this was also a way to weed out the fake videos. “There are many videos available on websites and popular video viewing sites where Naik is shown to be talking. But many of them are fake and doctored,” he said. The lawyer further added that they have routinely asked the websites to take these videos down and even lodged a complaint against them. “The dossier that we are preparing contain all the genuine material which show that he has never preached terrorism but only humanity,” Mr Solkar said.
The probe was launched after the Bangladesh government alleged that two terrorists who attacked foreigners in a cafe in Dhaka had been inspired by Naik’s sermons. They also alleged that Naik had mentioned one of the terrorists on his page on a social networking site. Naik is a popular televangelist and is the founder of the Islamic Research Foundation.
Following an order from the CM, the Mumbai police put to work a team of 15 to 20 officers headed by an additional commissioner to scan through all available works of Naik. “We have started the process of scanning through all the footage, sermons and talks available on various sites,” a police official said. He added that they would collect further evidence once the team had finished going through all the online material. “We are currently only scanning through footage available publicly. Once that is done we will send the team to his office to collect more material.” Advocate Solkar confirmed this and said no team had visited the IRF’s office to gather documents or other material yet.
He added that Naik would be called in for questioning if any incriminating evidence was found against him. “We will submit the preliminary report in a week and then depending on what the investigation reveals we will call him in to present his story,” the officer said.
Mr Solkar added that they had not applied for anticipatory bail and were not considering it. “We are confident that if the investigating agency conducts a proper, fair and unbiased probe then they will not find Dr Naik guilty of any of the allegations.”
