“Don’t insult my religion (by claiming) that I do not believe in God,” Ramasamy shot back in protest at the lawyer, Akberdin Abdul Kadir.

Akberdin was acting for controversial Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik in two defamation suits brought against Ramasamy.

The incident came about after he questioned whether Ramasamy knew of “Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy”, revered as “Periyar” or “Thanthai Periyar”, the founder of Dravidar Kalagam (Dravidian movement) in Tamil Nadu.

Ramasamy replied in the affirmative, saying a branch of the movement exists in Malaysia.

He, however, said he was not a member of the movement although he had been invited to speak at its events.

That was when Akberdin asked him whether he was an atheist, since members of the movement do not believe in God.

Ramasamy’s counsel, Ragunath Kesavan, objected, calling Akberdin’s line of questioning unfair.

Akberdin explained that he was following up on Ramasamy’s earlier testimony that he did not believe in Hindu scriptures and that he had also used words such as “Satan” to describe Naik as evil.

Justice Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz directed the lawyer to rephrase his question and not to label the witness.

Under cross-examination, Ramasamy said he had no preference when it comes to visiting Hindu houses of worship, but he generally goes to a Murugan temple.

He disagreed that he had attacked Naik in the media merely for political mileage, rather than because he believed in God or was interested in defending the Hindu faith.

He also acknowledged calling Naik a “fraud”, “fugitive”, “coward” and “terrorist”.

Akberdin: What is your justification for calling Naik a fraud?

Ramasamy: Because he was creating havoc in this country and was disruptive to the Hindus and non-Muslims.

In October and December 2019, Naik filed two separate suits alleging that Ramasamy had issued five statements which were defamatory of him.

He sued Ramasamy for allegedly issuing the statements, which were uploaded onto social media sites and news portals, between 2016 and 2019.

In his statement of claim, he alleged that Ramasamy had defamed him on April 10, 2016 by calling him “Satan” on his Facebook page.

Naik, who is a permanent resident, also says Ramasamy defamed him in another statement published by FMT on Oct 1, 2017, by claiming that Malaysia was harbouring an alleged fugitive from India.

He also claimed that on Aug 11, 2019, Ramasamy “manipulated” a speech he had made at an event organised by the Kelantan government, published by FMT the same day.

On Aug 20, 2019, he said, Ramasamy again defamed him in a statement published by India Today which, he claims, was laced with hatred and spite.

Naik’s second suit against Ramasamy alleges that the defendant had defamed him when making comments about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), carried by The Malaysian Insight portal on Nov 8, 2019.

The hearing has been adjourned to Friday.