Is Zakir Naik’s NGO a Front to Fund Peace TV? MHA Probes Finances
Funds collected by Zakir Naik’s NGO, Islamic Research Foundation, are reportedly pumped into running Peace TV.
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The Ministry of Home Affairs is carrying out a probe into the finances of Zakir Naik’s Peace TV, reported CNN-News18.
An earlier investigation by News18 has revealed that Naik had managed to collect large sums of money through donations for his charity Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), which is registered in the United Kingdom.
But more than 90 percent of this money was allegedly pumped into his television channel Peace TV.
The controversial evangelist has come under the scanner since it emerged that one of the attackers in the Dhaka terror attack was his follower.
While investigating the money trail, the news channel found that the office of Mumbai-based Harmony Media, which prepares software for Peace TV and that of IRF, is in the same building.
An Amir Abdul Mannan Gazdar is the director of both Harmony Media and IRF, the investigation revealed.
If the money trail from IRF leads directly into Harmony Media, it would mean Foreign Contribution Regulation Act laws have been violated.
Additionally, Peace TV is uplinked from Dubai, according to News18.
Supreme Multi Networks, the company which holds the downlinking rights for Peace TV, has curiously been defunct for the last four years and yet Peace TV is available in India.
It was also discovered that Harmony TV and Supreme Multi Networks had the same phone number.
The NGO was incorporated in 2007 with the supposed aim of “promoting education and communal harmony.”
The final question: Is Naik’s NGO IRF just a front to embezzle funds to run Peace TV, a channel accused of airing content which could incite communal violence?
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)