New Delhi, Aug. 16: India is unlikely to act against schools run by followers of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of masterminding a failed coup in that country last month, despite demands from Ankara, citing inadequate evidence of any wrongdoing by these institutions.

The home ministry has scrutinised "evidence" of alleged links between the Gulenist schools and terror groups provided to India by Turkey's embassy here, but has found nothing that would hold in a court of law, senior officials have told The Telegraph.

Turkey's consul general in Mumbai had last week publicly asked India to "shut down" schools associated with Gulen's teachings in Maharashtra and across the country, but had refused to name or put a number to the institutions citing legal complications.

But Turkey's ambassador in New Delhi Burak Akcapar has met Subrata Bhattacharjee, the joint secretary in the foreign ministry in charge of ties with Ankara, and handed over a list of nine schools and half a dozen coaching classes that the country wants closed, officials said.

These institutions also pose a security threat to India, Turkey has argued. Ankara insists Gulen heads what it calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) and argues that these schools and coaching centres are fronts for the group. Pennsylvania-based Gulen denies charges of any links to terrorism.

The schools in India - which function under a group of institutions called Learnium - are in New Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Calcutta and are known to view Gulenist ideas as an inspiration. But they are run by Indians and are widely viewed as offering secular education open to students from all faiths and backgrounds. Calcutta's Learnium School did not respond to an email from this newspaper.

India's security agencies have in their initial examination of the details provided by Akcapar, also not found any link between these institutions and groups allegedly involved in terrorist activities, though these schools have faced allegations of misleading parents about their affiliations, officials said.

"It always depends on the kind of information one government provides the other, especially when there is a security dimension," former Indian ambassador to Turkey Melkulangara Bhadrakumar told this newspaper. "That is what determines the response."

The demand is part of a global campaign by Turkey - its ambassadors have made identical calls on 100 other countries including the US, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria where Gulen's followers or sympathisers run schools.

Turkey has also made clear that the reaction of different countries to its requests on any institution linked - however tangentially - to Gulen will influence relations with that nation.

Officially, India is cautious about turning down Turkey's request promptly.

"We have told the Turkish side that we are looking into this matter," foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in response to a question from this newspaper. "The claims that they are making - we have to verify those, and we are looking into the matter."

But in the foreign office, many are pointing to the response of other major nations to the Turkish demand as an asset in strengthening India's diplomatic position if it does not act against the schools Ankara wants closed.

<>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has over the past month repeatedly demanded that the US extradite Gulen, but Washington has so far resisted Turkish pressure. Ankara has now alleged that Washington was involved in facilitating the coup attempt, a charge the US has dismissed.

Indonesia has also indicated that it does not welcome Turkey's demand, and views it as an attempt to interfere with institutions functioning legally in its territory.

Still, officials said, India cannot afford to appear to be dismissive of the demand, and will need to communicate the inadequacies in the evidence provided, gently.

Turkey remains influential in West Asia, and is the route most foreign recruits of the Islamic State terrorist group have used to enter Syria. Cooperation with Ankara is critical for New Delhi to keep an eye on the tiny but worrying flow of Indian youths to the war in Syria and Iraq.

During the coup attempt, India had been unusually prompt in releasing a statement that, while not burning New Delhi's ties with any new regime in Ankara, also appeared to support Erdogan.

"We have been closely following the developments in Turkey," the foreign office had said. "India calls upon all sides to support democracy and mandate of the ballot, and avoid bloodshed."

Ankara has also snuck closer to Islamabad in recent months and, earlier this month, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country "fully supports Pakistan" on the Kashmir dispute with India.

Cavusoglu also called for the UN to send a fact-finding team to Kashmir to probe the deaths and injuries in a month of violence between protesters and security forces following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.

Alienating Turkey completely could prove counterproductive, some officials argued. India is expected to instead argue that the inadequate evidence against the schools will not stand legal scrutiny, the officials said, and request more concrete evidence from Turkey if it wants action.

Such a move will also allow India to deftly signal that if Ankara wants cooperation, it also needs to tweak its own postures on New Delhi's concerns, like the Kashmir dispute.