No official confirmation of Zakir Naik's deportation to India, says MEA ; reports of return baseless, says the controversial preacher

Zakir Naik, the controversial Islamic preacher who has been living abroad to evade arrest in various cases in India, today termed as baseless reports of his returning to the country.

Naik said he would not return to India till he felt "safe from unfair prosecution".

His statement, issued through his spokesman here, came amid reports that he was being deported to India from Malaysia.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, however, said they were yet to receive any official confirmation from the Malaysian authorities regarding his deportation.

In January, the MEA had made a formal request to Malaysia to deport Naik, wanted by India for allegedly inciting youngsters for terror activities through his hate speeches.

Naik, in the statement, said : "The news of my coming to India is totally baseless and false. I have no plans to come to India till I feel safe from unfair prosecution".

The controversial preacher said
he would "surely" return to his "homeland" when he feels "the government will be just and fair."
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had first registered a case against the 51-year-old Naik under anti- terror laws in 2016 for allegedly promoting enmity between different religious groups