Zakir Naik says ED is lying

Absconding NRI tele-evangelist Zakir Naik on Friday slammed the Enforcement Director (ED) for alleging that though he had no earnings he had transferred Rs 46 crore in a six-year period.

In a detailed statement, 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 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".

Naik's rejoinder 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, 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. IANS