PETALING JAYA: Senior DAP politician P Ramasamy has been sued for defamation by controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik for the second time.
Ramasamy, who is Penang’s deputy chief minister II, confirmed with Malaysiakini that he had received the suit, which is over his comments in a media report in which he had accused Zakir Naik’s camp of creating fake news about the revival of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Malaysia.
The disinformation was allegedly made to divert attention from India’s bid to extradite Naik on charges of money-laundering.
Zakir had sued Ramasamy in October over four other statements he had made in a Facebook posting, two FMT news reports and a video interview with India Today.
In a fresh Facebook posting today, Ramasamy had said Zakir Naik’s attempts at disparaging non-Islamic faiths made him the “darling to the majority of Malay Muslims” for the same reason that non-Muslims found him offensive.
“It is no surprise then that the question on him as an icon was set in a course on ethnic relations at the Universiti of Malaysia Perlis,” said Ramasamy, in reference to a controversy over an examination paper at the university.