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National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) request has been turned down by the Interpol for a red corner notice against Televangelist Zakir Naik, on the ground that, at the time of the submission of the request, no charge sheet was filed against the accused and the request was premature. NIA clarified about the same that the charge sheet was submitted on October 26, 2017 and the ground was just the technical one. According to NIA sources, on the coming Monday a fresh request will be submitted to the Interpol regarding issuing an RCN against Naik. Along with the request, the copy of the charge sheet which was submitted by the agency to the special NIA court, Mumbai will be submitted.
In October Naik was charged under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, as a result of which IRF (Islamic Research Foundation) which was declared unlawful. After this he fled the country and is currently living in Malaysia. For the extradition of Naik, India is planning to make a formal request as currently he is based in Malaysia.
The Interpol commission also said that as no charge sheet has been filed "the issuance of a red notice for the applicant's arrest with a view to his extradition is premature" and it is cited in the Indian Government Guidelines that the extradition request for an accused can only be made after the charge sheet has been filed.
The NIA also said that:
"The only ground cited by Interpol is that no charges were submitted against Naik when the request was made. The order clearly states the rest of the contentions raised by Naik were not examined. Though NIA later filed the chargesheet coinciding with the commission's deliberations, Interpol did not take cognisance or seek a copy of the chargesheet,"
Naik used this opportunity and said that that the case on him was based on “religious persecution of minorities in India and the speech made by him didn’t create any terror in fact it promoted peace. Restricting him from delivering speech on Islam is suppressing his right of expression.”
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