The Enforcement Directorate told a special PMLA court on Friday that controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s company, Harmony Media Private Ltd (HMPL), received Rs 79 crore from the Dubai-based Global Broadcasting Company (GBC) and the money was used to produce speeches and reach a wider audience through Peace TV. The investigating agency on Friday arrested the “director” of GBC, Abdul Najmudin Sathak (61), alleged to be a close aide of Naik, and accused him of actively aiding him in money-laundering.
Sathak, a jeweller in Dubai, has been in India since January 2018. Seeking his custody, ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said while the agency believed GBC’s source of funds was under a cloud, Sathak in his January 2018 statement had claimed the company’s revenues were generated out of donations received from corporations owned by the crown prince of UAE or his family or other donors.
‘Mumbai, Pune flats among ₹193cr assets’
The probe against Zakir Naik has found undisclosed assets worth over Rs 193 crore, including booking 20 flats in Mumbai and Pune, besides bank deposits. The ED said Naik organised “dubious donations” and used them to buy properties, like nine flats in Fatima Heights and Aafiyah Heights in Mumbai worth over Rs 13 crore and 11 flats in Engracia in Pune. P 6
It was Naik who controlled UAE firm: ED
“It, therefore, appears that UAE and other Emirates funded Peace TV and content production for the channel for reasons beyond pious activity. Sathak is a direct player in the matter... He avoided clearly coming out with specific details on the business model, revenue sources, and nature and mode of funding of GBC, which runs Peace TV,” ED said. ED submitted that both companies, GBC and HMPL, were controlled by Naik. “The accused (Sathak) was merely a front. The company received donations… transferred to HMPL in the guise of business transactions. He has knowingly assisted Naik in layering and receiving the proceeds of crime,” ED said.
Special judge M S Azmi sent Sathak to ED custody until Wednesday. “Various details with regard to transactions are required to be gathered, which are essential for the investigations,” the court said. Referring to the Rs 79 crore, ED said the money was received from 2005-06 to 2015-16. It said that Rs 9 crore given as advance was still pending with HMPL and Sathak never bothered to demand the money. It said this strengthened the case that both companies were indirectly owned by Naik. ED also raised suspicions on Sathak’s claims that GBC (worth Rs 70 crore) was sold to a UK national, a technocrat, in 2017. It said that to avoid arrest Sathak came to India in December 2017 and entered the country by land from Nepal. Sathak’s defence claimed he had arrived in Chennai to attend his son’s wedding and had gone to Nepal to procure labour for his Dubai business. The ED claimed that Sathak also had a personal business relationship with Naik and invested 35 million dirhams (Rs 66 crore) in his real estate venture in Dubai.
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