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

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 22,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 22: Monday's only pending II PU exam (English) and SSLC exams scheduled to start on March 27 have been postponed due to Covid-19 concerns. The new dates will be announced in April first week.

The decision was taken after a meeting with chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday morning, said state primary and secondary education minister S Suresh Kumar.

Around 8.25 lakh students are to appear for the Class 10 exam.

"I appeal to SSLC students not to get frustrated. I know you're fully prepared, fully geared up. But this is a peculiar situation which calls for hard decisions. The new timetable will be published very soon. Students should treat is as an extended study leave. Please revise more. Do not treat this as a relaxation time. You'll have plenty of time to relax after the exams," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 30,2020

Dubai, May 30: Taking advantage of Vande Bharat Mission, a notorious NRI conman has fled to India through a repatriation flight after duping several businessmen in United Arab Emirates and stealing goods worth nearly six million dirhams.

Yogesh Ashok Yariava, 36, owner of the fraudulent Royal Luck Foodstuff Trading and prime suspect in the audacious scam took a flight to Hyderabad from Abu Dhabi on May 11 with around 170 repatriates.

His mandatory two-week quarantine period would have ended on May 25, but for his 40 odd victims a protracted battle for justice has just begun.

Last Wednesday many of them trooped down to the Indian Consulate office in Dubai in the hope of getting an audience with Consul General Vipul. The following day they went to Bur Dubai police station clutching dud bank cheques.

In a replay of the familiar trading scam, conmen representing Royal Luck Foodstuff approached unsuspecting traders and made bulk purchases against post-dated cheques.

They bought anything they could get their hands on: Facemasks, hand sanisters and medical gloves worth nearly half a million dirhams from Skydent Medical Equipment, Raheeq Laboratories and GSA Star; rice and nuts (Dh393,000) from Al Baraka Foods; tuna, pistachios and saffron (Dh300,725) from Yes Buy General Trading; French fries and mozzarella cheese (Dh229,000) from Mehdu General Trading; frozen Indian beef (Dh207,000) from Al Ahbab General Trading and halwa and tahina (Dh52812) from Emirates Sesame Factory. It’s a long list and it keeps getting longer as more victims come forward.

When their post-dated cheques started bouncing, the traders rushed to Royal Luck’s Opal Tower office in Business Bay. But it was too late. They had shut down and all their 18 staffers had disappeared. Visits to their warehouses also drew a blank.

“Calls made to the company’s sweet-talking purchase managers who visited us days earlier carrying fancy business cards remained unanswered,” said Chandrasekaran Ganesan of Ajman-based Skydent Medical Equipment which supplied protective face masks worth Dh175,875.

Another business owner, Anand Asar said he visited Royal Luck’s office after his cheque of Dh79,552 returned marked insufficient funds. “The security guard at the building told us their staff was last seen on May 17,” said Asar who has since lodged a police complaint.

“I am devastated. I don’t know how I will recover my losses,” said another trader.

Victims reckon the ill-gotten goods have been sold to third parties at dirt cheap prices.

“They have got millions of dirhams worth of goods against worthless pieces of paper. The scammers would rack up huge profits even if they sell our stuff for one tenth their price,” said another trader who pegged his losses at Dh200,000.

The scam comes close on the heels a Dh4 million fruit loot in which 810 tonnes of fruits shipped by Indian exporters to OPC Foodstuff Trading in Deira, Dubai were similarly stolen last month.

Legal adviser Salam Pappinisseri from Sharjah based United Advocates that represents five firms which have collectively lost over Dh550,000 said they are weighing legal action against the prime suspect Yogesh Ashok Variava in both India and the UAE.

“Yogesh, originally from Mumbai, absconded from the UAE with large amounts of money on an emergency evacuation flight. It’s strange that the fraudster got a seat in the flight which was meant to bring stranded Indian citizens who had registered with the Indian embassy and consulate requesting repatriation on urgent grounds,” said Pappinisseri.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 24,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 24: Bengaluru police registered an FIR against a 23 year-old woman who, while in home quarantine, visited supermarket despite having clear instructions to stay at home.

The Vijayanagar police said that the woman, a resident of Vijayanagar, had returned to the City on March 22 after a visit to Dubai."The city police had visited her house and stamped her for home quarantine and instructed her to stay at home but she visited Reliance Fresh on Monday.

We received information about it and the footage. Following this, we registered an FIR against her under section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life). We traced her and warned her to stay at home. We are also consulting senior officers and health officers on whether we have to send her to the government quarantine Centre or not,"the police said.

Commissioner of Police Bhaskar Rao strictly warned the people who are home quarantined to stay at home in public interest. If they were found in public places they will be picked up, arrested and sent to government quarantine."Please log in to get detailed story.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.