Court rejects discharge plea of Zakir Naik’s ‘close associate’ | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court rejected the discharge plea of Aamit Gazdar, an alleged close confidante of Dr Zakir Naik, arrested for actively assisting the controversial Islamic preacher and televangelist in laundering proceeds of crime.

Gazdar, who is currently out on bail, was arrested by the ED in February 2017 after registering a money laundering case against him, based on a case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Special judge AC Daga, in an order passed on March 5, observed that Gazdar was apparently involved in handling and layering the proceeds of crime generated by Naik from his unlawful activities.

Gazdar’s advocate had argued that there was nothing to show that there was a generation of proceeds of crime. Naik’s organisation was banned on November 18, 2016, and there was no material to show that there was any activity by the organisation thereafter.

The defence maintained that the scheduled offence, based on which ED launched a money laundering probe, was under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, for which too, there was no foundation and, hence, there was no question of dealing/laundering with proceeds of crime.

Special public prosecutor Kavita Patil opposed the plea, arguing that Gazdar’s statement, recorded under the PMLA, shows that he was involved in handling and dealing with the proceeds of crime generated by Naik, and maintained that section 120-B of the IPC (criminal conspiracy) was added to the NIA case which is a scheduled offence.

The court observed that Gazdar was director of the company which was engaged in production of videos of Naik’s provocative speeches, which were exported to M/s Global Broadcasting Corporation FZ LLC, Dubai, for telecast through Peace TV for worldwide viewership.

“This itself goes to show active involvement of the applicant in unlawful activity of Dr Zakir Naik and circulation of the speeches etc. was the mode for generation of proceeds of crime,” said the court.

It noted that Gazdar gave ₹2.35 crore as loan to Naik’s Harmony Media Pvt Ltd, which was repaid without an interest, based on an agreement that he would get a 1000-sq-ft flat in Mazgaon.

“Record also show that the applicant/accused was handling unaccounted cash transactions on behalf of Dr Zakir Naik to the tune of ₹5 crore approximately,” said the court, adding that in his statement, Gazdar had admitted about the loan and the ₹5 crore routed through him based on Naik’s directions.

The court further held that statements of witnesses recorded under section 50 of PML Act, 2002, also show that the accused was involved in assisting Dr. Zakir Naik in his crime. “As such, there is prima-facie material on record to proceed further against the applicant/accused,” it said.

Naik, an alleged fundamentalist Islamic preacher, faces charges of spreading hatred through his speeches broadcasted on the channel, Peace TV, which is banned in India. The channel is owned by Islamic Research Foundation, founded by Naik and is broadcasted from Dubai.

Naik’s name gained attention after one of the terrorists involved in the 2016 Dhaka Cafe attack, that led to the death of 22 people, revealed that he was inspired by Naik’s speeches, after which Naik fled the country. The NIA then registered a case against Naik and Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) on charges of inciting Muslim youth to indulge in violence and promoting enmity based on religion and race.