Why did ED summon journalist Rana Ayyub?
Journalist Rana Ayyub was stopped by the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday, March 29, at Mumbai airport when was about to board a flight to London to deliver a speech at the International Centre for Journalists (ICJ).
Rana accused the Enforcement Directorate of summoning her despite making her programme public in advance. Taking to Twitter, she wrote that she was stopped today at the Indian immigration while she was about to board her flight to London to deliver her speech on the intimidation of journalists with ICFJ. She said that she was also to travel to Italy right after to deliver the keynote address at the journalism fest on the Indian democracy.
Why did ED summon Rana Ayyub?
Rana Ayyub is facing an investigation in a money laundering case for allegedly misusing funds that were collected for charity through the website ketto.com. In February, a document attributed to ED sources found that Rana had raised over Rs 2.69 crores through an online crowdfunding platform called Ketto for charitable purposes between 2020 and 2021.
The ED also attached Rs 1.77 crore belonging to her, claiming that the money was proceeds of crime.
In the order that was accessed, it was written that the funds totalling to Rs 2,69,44,680 were raised on Ketto by Rana Ayyub. These funds were withdrawn from the bank accounts of her sister/father. Out of this amount, Rs 72,01,786 was withdrawn from her own bank account, Rs 37,15,072 was withdrawn from her sister Iffat Shaikh’s account and Rs 1,60,27,822 was withdrawn from her father Mohd Ayyub Waquif’s bank account. All these funds from her sister’s and father’s accounts were subsequently transferred to her own account.
