The Centre has decided to tread cautiously against Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik
Equipped with the latest legal opinion, the Centre has decided to tread cautiously against televangelist Zakir Naik and his NGOs, the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and IRF Educational Trust.
According to highly placed sources, a legal opinion from the law ministry has advised the union home ministry to go deeper and examine more speeches of Zakir Naik in detail as the evidence produced until now is insufficient to proceed against Naik and his NGO.
Countering reports that the Centre is all set to take action against Naik by slapping charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and may soon ban IRF as an "unlawful association", the source said, "It is not true, the evidence gathered until now does not warrant such a tough action. Their role needs to probed deeper."
The legal opinion, however, has advised the union home ministry to establish the authenticity of each controversial speech of Naik through forensic analysis to see if they are doctored or not and see more of his speeches of a longer span before drawing any definitive conclusions. The opinion has also asked home ministry to find concrete and fool-proof evidence of alleged irregularities committed by the IRF.
"It may take the investigators a couple of months to arrive at some conclusion as establishing the authenticity of tapes, transcribing them and then look keenly at them with a lense is a tedious job,"sources added.
Action was being sought against Naik after some reports claimed that a number of ISIS youth, including the one involved in the recent Dhaka massacre and a Bengaluru based ISIS loyalist, were found to be a followers of Zakir Naik and drew inspiration from his speeches.
Naik has refuted all allegations of inspiring youth to carry any violent activities and has challenged the investigators to find anything unlawful against him. Naik, a popular Salafist preacher having thousands of followers across the globe, also runs Peace TV which has been banned in India.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Zakir Naik")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}