GEORGE TOWN, Nov 6 — Former Penang deputy chief minister P. Ramasamy has accused controversial Muslim missionary Dr Zakir Naik of slandering him in a recent lecture in Nigeria.
Ramasamy said Dr Zakir had sullied his name by calling him the “biggest enemy of Islam” during a talk in Sokoto.
“Those are serious accusations against our client that are baseless and the police report was to urge the authorities to investigate Zakir for criminal defamation, abuse of multimedia and other offences,” lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind, representing Ramasamy, said in a press statement today.
A video recording of the talk with the caption “Dr Zakir Naik Donates US$ 320,000 towards Palestine Cause”, was uploaded on Facebook on November 4.
The lawyer had earlier accompanied Ramasamy to file a police report against Dr Zakir at the Bukit Mertajam police station at 11.31am.
Shamsher said a legal letter of demand has also been sent to Dr Zakir’s residence in Putrajaya to retract and remove the allegations from all social media platforms and to issue an unconditional written apology for the remarks to Ramasamy.
Shamsher said Dr Zakir must publish the apology on his verified Facebook page for 30 days with his privacy settings fixed to “public” as well as in six Malaysian newspapers in four languages.
He names the newspapers as Sinar Harian and Berita Harian that publishes in Malay, The Star and New Straits Times that are in English, Sin Chew Daily, which is in Mandarin and Makkal Osai which is in Tamil.
Dr Zakir told to give a writen undertaking to never repeat the same or similar allegation against Ramasamy and that he pays compensation to Ramasamy, the amount of which shall be agreed by the parties.
Shamsher said his client will immediately file a defamation suit against Dr Zakir if the latter fails to fulfil any of the demands within 14 days of receiving the legal notice.
“In fact, there was no necessity whatsoever for you to make any remark about our client in your lecture, especially when our client was not even present at the event to defend himself,” he said in the notice.
This is not the first time Ramasamy and Mumbai-born Dr Zakir have traded barbs.
Last week, Dr Zakir won two defamation suits against Ramasamy filed in 2019.
In the November 4 decision, the High Court ruled that Ramasamy must pay RM1.52 million in compensation to Dr Zakir within 30 days and make a public apology.
However, Ramasamy is planning to appeal the order for a public apology, his other lawyer Razlan Hadri Zulkifli said last Saturday.
