Centre questions Zakir Naik's plea to club FIRs, calls him a fugitive

The Centre on Wednesday questioned before the Supreme Court the maintainability of a plea filed by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik seeking clubbing of FIRs filed in different states over his purported statements during the Ganapati festival in 2012.

Appearing before a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked how a person who was declared a fugitive, file a plea under Article 32 of the Constitution.

"I was told by his advocate that they are withdrawing the matter. Our counter was ready," said Mehta.

The lawyer representing Naik said he hadn't received any such instruction to withdraw the matter and the plea sought clubbing of about 43 cases registered across states.

The counsel further said there were six FIRs pending against his client and he would move the high court for quashing of the same.

Following the submissions, the top court directed Naik's counsel to file an affidavit stating whether he would pursue the case or withdraw it while asking Mehta to file a reply in the matter. The hearing has been posted on October 23.

Naik, who is currently abroad, is also being probed by the National Investigation Agency for alleged terror activities.

Naik was born in Mumbai but he fled India in the wake of July 1, 2016 bombing at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is accused of allegedly spreading hatred among different communities through his Peace TV and social media networks, where he has over 20 million followers. He is stated to be residing in Malaysia at the moment.

Over 20 people were killed in the blast in Dhaka and one of the bombers had reportedly claimed to have been inspired by Naik's speeches.

Some of the youths who joined the Islamic State, had allegedly said that they were attracted to the Middle-East's deadliest terror group after meeting the controversial preacher.

Naik has denied his role in any of these incidents.