New Delhi: In a letdown for India, Interpol cancelled New Delhi's request for a red-corner notice against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik that could have restricted his international travel.
Interpol also told police agencies in various countries to remove information regarding Naik from its database that it, or India, may have sent them.
Zakir Naik was quick to welcome the Interpol communication. "Am relieved but would be more relieved if my own Indian government and Indian agencies gave me justice and also cleared me of all the charges," Naik said in a video message.
Interpol found that the data challenged raised questions as to complaince with applicable rules.
"It considered that the retentions of this data in the Interpol information system was not compliant with Interpol rules and decided that it should be deleted," read a statement from Interpol.
The data challenged was thus deleted from Interpol's files on November 9, 2017.
Accessed exclusively by CNN-News18, a letter sent by Naik’s lawyers to the INTERPOL Secretary General in France sought for a refusal to issue and publish the red notice on the ground that it does not comply with the INTERPOL’s Constitution and Rules.
Stating that “he is not a fugitive from justice,” London-based attorney Corker Binning’s letter denied allegations of money laundering and inciting terrorism while pressing for a greater vigilance in this case owing to the current political dispensation in India.
Naik, a 52-year-old medical doctor, has aroused controversy with his puritan brand of Islam - recommending the death penalty for homosexuals and those who abandon Islam as their faith. A Youtube video shows Naik saying that if Osama bin Laden "is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, I am with him".
Naik has in the past denied India's allegations. In an interview with a Kuwaiti television channel in May, he said he was being targeted by the “Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi because of his popularity”.
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