Ramasamy said Malaysian authorities should look at it from New Delhi’s perspective.
“Just imagine. If (billionaire financier) Jho Low was in India, wouldn’t Malaysia be interested in getting him back on the basis of a bilateral extradition treaty?
“Now imagine India looking for Naik. With all due respect to the prime minister, I cannot fathom why he said we would be bowing to pressure if we let Naik go to India.
“We should be honouring a bilateral extradition agreement between ourselves and India. Why are we protecting a fugitive?
“Let him go back to India, be tried and defend himself in court and maybe come back to be a Malaysian citizen,” the Penang deputy chief minister told FMT.
Low, a key figure in the 1MDB probe is reportedly in Macau, with which Malaysia does not have an extradition treaty.
Today, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government was not obliged to deport Naik and would not yield to pressure from “others”.
Naik had repeatedly refuted charges by the Indian authorities, claiming they were politically motivated.
Ramasamy said while he agreed with Mahathir that Malaysia should not bow to pressure from others, it should conform to the rule of law.
“No one is pressuring the government or the PM. We only ask that the rule of law be exercised. We cannot harbour fugitives like Naik in our country.
“Naik should be taken to task for all the mess he created through hate speeches under the cloak of ‘comparative religion’ talks.
“During the heyday of BN and Umno, he created a lot of tension among Muslims and non-Muslims. Naik condemned Hinduism but was protected by (former prime minister) Najib Razak and (his deputy) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“Now, since Pakatan Harapan has taken over, we have a mandate to clean up the mess left by BN.”
Academic: Come clean on why Zakir Naik can remain in Malaysia