Supreme Court allows Zakir Naik to withdraw plea to consolidate multiple hate speech cases
Supreme Court has allowed fugitive Islamic preacher Zakir Naik to withdraw his plea to consolidate multiple hate speech cases against him. A bench comprising Justices Abhay Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Augustine George Masih granted the withdrawal after Naik informed the court that he plans to approach the respective High Courts to seek the quashing of these cases, reported Bar and Bench.
The Maharashtra government previously questioned Naik's ability to approach the Supreme Court given his fugitive status. The court had permitted the state to file a counter-affidavit to present their objections about the maintainability of Naik's plea.
Earlier, Centre also questioned before the Supreme Court the maintainability of a plea filed Zakir Naik seeking clubbing of FIRs filed in different states over his purported statements during the Ganapati festival in 2012.
The lawyer representing Naik said he hadn't received any such instruction to withdraw the matter and the plea sought clubbing of about 43 cases registered across states.
The counsel further said there were six FIRs pending against his client and he would move the high court for quashing of the same.
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