KUALA LUMPUR: The hearing of the defamation suit involving Dr Zakir Naik against Penang deputy chief minister II P Ramasamy today saw the Islamic preacher involved in terse exchanges with the DAP politician's lawyer.
There was no shortage of Quranic verses, complete with his trademark chapter and line numbers from the holy book being recited by the religious scholar to back his evidence as he testified against Ramasamy.
Adding to this, Dr Zakir almost had Ramasamy's lawyer Ranjit Singh pulling out his hair in frustration as the preacher refused to answer in a short yes or no manner when questions were put to him.
Instead, Dr Zakir insisted to elaborate on his answers despite being advised several times by the High Court judge that he would have ample opportunity to do so during re-examination by his own counsel.
The proceedings today started with Ranjit taking Dr Zakir through a series of questions on the latter's controversial remarks concerning Hindu gods, especially Lord Ganesh, which had caused an uproar in India previously.
However, Dr Zakir maintained that what he said had been taken out of context and videos of his talk were doctored by certain groups in India.
The 56-year old, who is now a Malaysian permanent resident, was later asked why he only chose to sue Ramasamy and four others - namely DAP assemblyman for Bagan Dalam Satees Muniandy, Klang Member of Parliament Charles Santiago, Hindu Rights action Force (HINDRAF) chairman P Waytha Moorthy and former diplomat Dennis Ignatius, when others had also made disparaging remarks against him.
However, Dr Zakir's counsel Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah objected to Ranjit's line of questioning, stating that it was entirely up to his client on who to sue.
He said Ramasamy should concentrate on defending himself against the allegations as was required in a defamation suit instead of asking why only he had been targetted.
Ranjit then moved on to refer Dr Zakir to several past news reports quoting various chief ministers and menteri besars along with senior police officers from Bukit Aman who were reported to have said that the preacher was banned from giving talks in Malaysia to preserve racial and religious harmony among the people in this country.
However, Dr Zakir denied this and said he had never been banned from giving talks in any state.
On the contrary, he claimed that the only reason his talks had been disrupted was because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Zakir is suing Ramasamy over four alleged defamatory statements that were issued on April 10, 2016, Oct 1, 2017, Aug 11, 2019 and Aug 20, 2019.
Ramasamy had allegedly made the first defamatory statement via a Facebook post on April 10, 2015.
The second was in the form of an article titled "Is Malaysia harbouring alleged fugitive Zakir Naik?" which was published by an online news portal on Oct 1, 2017.
The third alleged defamatory statement was made on Aug 11, 2019 through the article "Naik should not question loyalty of Hindus in Malaysia", which was also carried by the online news portal.
Ramasamy was also alleged to have defamed Dr Zakir through a video interview on Aug 20, which was given to India-based media platform India Today.
In the 2016 Facebook posting, Ramasamy allegedly called Dr Zakir satan but later removed the posting and expressed regret for it.
The trial before High Court Judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz continues on March 14.