Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar today said no one, including the Islamic evangelist who is accused of money laundering in India, would be given special treatment in Malaysia.
“Permanent residents and foreign citizens who enter the country must obey the laws of Malaysia,” he said.
“The same rule applies when we travel to other countries. We must obey their laws,” he told a press conference in Bukit Aman today.
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had earlier today disclosed to reporters that Naik holds PR in Malaysia.
Naik, who founded the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) which has been declared unlawful in India, obtained his PR more than five years ago, Zahid said.
He added that it was before he became the home minister in May 2013.
The government awarded Naik the ‘Tokoh Maal Hijrah’ award in Nov 2013.
On March 1 this year, 19 individuals filed a suit against the government at the Kuala Lumpur High Court registry for allegedly harbouring him.
They claimed that he encouraged terrorism in public and that his presence in Malaysia was a serious threat to the country’s safety.
Naik told a press conference yesterday that he did not want to return to India to be questioned by the authorities, claiming that he would be tortured.
India’s National Investigation Agency is seeking a Red Notice from Interpol after Naik had defied repeated summons to join in the probe into his affairs in India.
The Red Notice, a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition, is the closest instrument to an international warrant of arrest.