Zakir Naik’s close aide arrested

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested Aamir Abdul Mannan Gazdar, a close aide of controversial televangelist Zakir Naik, in connection with a money laundering case.

The arrest comes a month after the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).

Earlier, ED officials had summoned Naik and the office-bearers of IRF for questioning. It had also questioned his brother Mohammad Naik, who is a co-founder of IRF.

According to sources, Gazdar had allegedly helped Zakir Naik in ‘layering of funds’ and placement of money abroad. Gazdar had also allegedly helped Naik in illegal cash transactions. He was the director in many dummy companies controlled by Naik apart from the Harmony Media.

The ED had also asked an IRF accountant to submit the annual account transactions, which they had received in January 30.