Tribunal restrains ED From taking over Dr Zakir Naik’s assets; asks why no action against babas?

News Network
January 10, 2018

New Delhi, Jan 10: After NIA suffered an embarrassment with quashing of its Red Corner Notice request by the Interpol, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday was pulled up by a judicial tribunal over its investigation against peace activist and Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik.

Justice Manmohan Singh, who heads the Appellate Tribunal for PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) at New Delhi, restrained the agency from taking over Dr Naik’s properties attached by the agency, and drew a parallel between Naik and self-styled spiritual leader Asaram Bapu.

"I can name 10 babas who have properties worth more than Re 10,000 crore each and they are facing criminal cases. Have you acted against even one of them? What have you done against Asaram Bapu?" it asked the counsel for the ED.

Raising questions whether ED was being selective in acting against Dr Naik, the Tribuna’s chairman observed that the agency seems to have done nothing in the last 10 years about confiscating properties of Asaram but looked to act a lot quicker in this case.

The central probe agency, in March last year, had attached a school building in Chennai and a warehouse as part of its provisional attachment in the case and it was carried out under the stringent criminal provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

As per the legal scheme under the Act, such an order goes to the Adjudicating Authority for final approval and in case the ED's action is endorsed, the affected party can appeal it before the Appellate Authority of the law.

The Appellate Authority (PMLA), now in a recent order, directed the agency to restrain from taking possession of the said attached immovable assets even as it posed several queries and questioned the agency's action in the case.

Official sources in the ED said the agency will appeal the order of the Appellate Authority or the Tribunal before a High Court and that it was not a "set back" in the case.

Officials said the tribunal order has not "quashed" the attachment but has directed that status quo be maintained. The tribunal, they said, has at the same time not barred the agency "from taking possession" of the movable assets attached in the same order that includes mutual funds worth about Rs. 9.41 crore and five bank accounts containing deposits worth Rs. 1.23 crore in the name of Naik's NGO Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).

Agency sources said the investigation conducted by the ED officials is independent of the NIA and that it has found that these assets were created by Naik and his associates using alleged "tainted funds".

The Adjudicating Authority had approved the ED order after being satisfied by the investigation, they said, adding this will be a point made in the appeal to the High Court.

The ED is looking into the charges of alleged laundering of illegal funds in the case and the subsequent proceeds of crime thus generated.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had first registered a case against the 51-year-old Naik under antiterrorism laws in 2016 for allegedly promoting enmity between different religious groups.

The NIA and Mumbai Police, subsequently, had also carried out searches at 10 places in Mumbai including residential premises of some of the office bearers of the foundation run by Naik.

The foundation was earlier put on restricted list by the Home Ministry for receiving funds from abroad.

Comments

All officers?. Even the ones who have Muslim names? Or Christian names?.. All of them belong to RSS? Great.

His sayings are based on truth, his speeches based on reality but people like you are not ready to listen or accept the truth. You always want to follow cheater swamis and don't try to know the truth.

zahoor ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

Dr.Naik speak truth. People like saffron group dislike truth and they want to hide the truth from common people. 

Ganesh
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

Right thing asked. 

Vivek
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

Ban his speeches in India. Only fearless Modi ji can do that. and he will do that soon.

Unknown
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

No news of ZN in these days. Soon he will be behind bars. His speeches are so provocative. Degrading other religions. He should be punished

Sangeeth
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

The main reason behind the enquiry of ZN source of income was terror link and funding.

Yogesh
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

Because babas not involving in terror activities and they dont have any funding from terrorists org

shahid
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018

All officers are RSS minded people. thats why they are biased to others. zakir naik is a muslim right

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News Network
February 24,2020

New Delhi, Feb 24: India has deeply appreciated the Senegal government's decision to extradite fugitive gangster Ravi Poojary to India, official sources said on Sunday.

Facilitation of transit provided by the Government of France has also been acknowledged, they said.

Ravi Prakash Poojary, accused of committing a number of serious offences including murder and extortion in multiple jurisdictions, was extradited from Senegal on Saturday.

The probe agencies have persistently pursued the case for his extradition with the authorities in Senegal. India had made a request with Senegal for his extradition in early 2019, sources said.

Poojary was associated with gangster Chhota Rajan, but he also worked for fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 10: Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said on Tuesday that he filed his nomination for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka in response to a collective call from national leaders to be back in the Parliament.

"Though I was not personally interested to contest, national leaders from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, TMC and Left parties want me back in Parliament," he told reporters here.

Gowda, 87, filed his nomination in the Vidhana Soudha, submitting the papers to Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer M.K. Vishalakshi, a party official told IANS.

Gowda''s second son and former minister H.D. Revanna and third son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy were present on the occasion.

"Our party''s all 34 legislators also urged me to contest as my presence is necessary in Parliament at a time when the country was grappling with multiple crises in the aftermath of coronavirus," said Gowda.

Claiming that there was no pressure from his two sons as they are more concerned with his health, Gowda said he was touched by the requests of the national leaders, especially Gandhi who personally called him and asked him to contest as the country needed his presence in Parliament.

Gowda agreed to contest in the bypoll as his party''s candidate after the Congress state unit assured him of its support with its surplus votes, as the JD-S with 34 legislators is short of 10 votes of the required 44 votes.

It will be second time Gowda will enter the Rajya Sabha, 24 years after he was its member as the Prime Minster from June 1996 to April 1997 of the United Front government.

"Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal informed Kumaraswamy on June 6 that the party was fielding only its senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka and had surplus votes to ensure my victory as our party is 10 votes short of the required 44 votes to win," Gowda said.

Kharge filed his nomination on Monday.

Party''s outgoing member Kupendra Reddy, whose 6-year term ends on June 25, told Gowda that he was not interested for a second term as he did not get enough time in the upper house to raise issues.

"As our party does not have numbers in Parliament to get more time allotted to raise issues and participate in debates, Reddy wanted me to be in the Rajya Sabha in his place so that I could serve the nation better," Gowda said.

Gowda lost in the May 2019 general elections from Tumkur to G.S. Basvaraj of the BJP.

With the term of the four members -- Congress'' B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda, BJP''s Prabhakar Kore and JD-S''s Reddy ending on June 25, the Election Commission notified the poll on June 1.

According to the poll panel, the nominations will be scrutinised on Wednesday and last date for withdrawal by candidates is June 12. Polling and vote count is on June 19.

From the ruling BJP, its grassroot cadres Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti filed their nominations after Gowda.

By fielding Gowda for the fourth seat, the Congress and JD-S, who had post-poll and pre-poll alliances for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in May 2019 and May 2018, queered the pitch for the BJP, denying it the chance to win a third seat.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
May 22,2020

Newsroom, May 22: Countless netizens including Indians have hailed the action taken by Jazan University of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against a high-ranking Indian expatriate who had posted called Indian Muslims as radicals.  

Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook flooded with appreciation after the University announced on Twitter that the professor, who had posted objectionable messsages, had been fired. The university, however, did not disclose the name of the professor. 

On its Twitter account, Jazan University wrote, “Based on what was monitored by the university about the publication of a contracted faculty member for offensive posts and tweets, his registration has already been folded. #JazanUniversity affirms that it resolutely addresses any perverted or extremist ideas that affect the constants or violate the directions of good leadership.”

After the university’s announcement, many on Twitter posted screenshots of the communal tweets claiming that the professor is Neeraj Bedi and made it clear that the dismissed professor is an Indian.

Bedi has been working as full time Professor in Faculty of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Jazan University for years.

In his Twitter account, which does not currently exist, he was praising PM Modi and spewing poison against Islam and holding Muslims responsible for the spread of Coronavirus. It is believed that the account was deleted after the protests became severe.

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