"Earnings Reflected In Tax Returns": Zakir Naik On Money-Laundering Probe

Controversial preacher Zakir Naik on Friday alleged the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is lying after the probe agency said he had no "sources of income" but he managed to transfer over Rs 46 crore in a six-year period to his Indian bank accounts. 

In a detailed statement, Zakir Naik said: "Why is the ED lying? When everyone - including all the government agencies - know that I have multiple businesses and revenue streams and my earnings have always reflected in the tax returns I have filed, why is the ED lying about it?"

He sought to know "whether the pressure" is so huge that they (ED) had to resort to lies to achieve the goal set out by "their political bosses".

Zakir Naik's reply came two days after the ED filed a chargesheet before the Special PMLA Court's Special Judge M.S. Azmi, accusing him of money-laundering.

According to the ED chargesheet, Zakir Naik, an Islamic preacher, keeps travelling around the world with no "known sources" of income and yet he managed to transfer Rs 49.20 crore to his Indian bank accounts and that the total proceeds of the crime were around Rs 193 crore.