After being cast into the limelight following the terror attack in Dhaka, controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has been cleared by the Mumbai police.

In a preliminary report, the Indian city’s special branch appeared to indicate that though some contents of his speeches might be objectionable, they were not provocative or anti-national.

According to the Hindustan Times, police sources said they “could not find anything concrete that could be used to file a hate speech case against Zakir”.

However, a separate probe into the activities of his think tank Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) would start soon.

According to Hindustan Times, more than 20 police officers scanned a huge collection of Zakir’s sermons and speeches, which are in the public domain.

Apart from this, the officers also screened footage from the office of Harmony Media Pvt Ltd, where the editing studio of Zakir’s Peace TV is located.

Harmony Media employees were also interviewed as part of the enquiry.

“The police team heard the sermons and speeches and all the objectionable content was penned down after listening to the transcripts. Those documents have also been attached in the preliminary report on Zakir,” a police officer told Hindustan Times.

Investigations have not concluded though, as police would now start a separate probe into the other activities of Harmony Media and the IRF.

“Documents and past records could not be gathered at such a short notice for verification, hence these things are left open-ended in the report, which may or may not require further enquiry by the Mumbai police,” the officer told Hindustan Times.

In the wake of the July 1 attack at an upscale café in Dhaka which left 20 people dead, Bangladesh’s English newspaper Daily Star reported that two of the terrorists, Rohan Imtiaz and Nibras Islam, were social media followers of Zakir.

The report said Rohan had last year posted on Facebook quoting Zakir “urging all Muslims to be terrorists”.

The preacher, however, denied promoting terrorism.