Ending a year-long search, M.M. Akbar, Islamic preacher and managing director of the Kozhikode-based Peace Educational Foundation, has finally landed in custody of the Kochi city police.
Officials said a four-member team led by Vipin Das, sub-inspector of police, Ernakulam North, took custody of Akbar from Hyderabad airport. ‘‘He was on his way to Doha from Melbourne via Indonesia, and landed in Hyderabad for a brief stopover on Saturday night,” officials said.
Akbar had thought his stopover in Hyderabad would be a non-immigration transit, which was not to be. He was apprehended by the emigration officials based on a lookout circular issued by the Kerala Police, they added.
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The Islamic preacher had been residing in Doha, Qatar, for the past one year to evade arrest.
Akbar is slated to be taken to Kochi by Sunday night. The Islamic preacher is wanted by the police in a case over the adoption of non-secular textbooks at the Peace International School in Ernakulam.
“Interrogating Akbar is crucial in ascertaining whether the introduction of these books was part of a deliberate attempt to trigger communal hatred among its students. For, these schools had taught texts of Islamic studies by another publisher till two years ago,” said a top officer with the Kochi city police.
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The arrest comes at a time when the government had initiated steps to close down all schools run by the foundation in the State.