Ayyub alleged that ED issued fresh summons to her to frustrate her plan to go abroad to deliver talks at the invitation of professional organisations.
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THE Delhi High Court, on Friday, refused any immediate relief to journalist Rana Ayyub as it adjourned the hearing of her petition to Monday. Ayyub had sought freedom to travel abroad to deliver her keynote address in person on gender-based online violence against journalists at an event, organised by the International Centre for Journalists in London. She is also scheduled to travel from London to Rome on April 4 to address the Perugia International Journalism Festival.
Justice Chandra Dhari Singh, sitting singly, directed the Enforcement Directorate [ED] to file a status report after its senior counsel Additional Solicitor General [ASG] S.V. Raju informed the Court that Ayyub had not supplied the documents asked for by the agency in connection with investigation against her in the alleged siphoning by her of money she received through crowd-funding during the COVID-19 crisis.
On March 29, Ayyub was stopped at Mumbai’s international airport prior to boarding a flight to the United Kingdom, after the ED reportedly issued a summons against her.
Appearing for Ayyub, advocate Vrinda Grover argued that the summons issued by ED which she received at 3:46 p.m. on March 29 was an afterthought, to frustrate her trip abroad. At around 11:50 a.m., Ayyub’s passport and visa were checked by immigration authorities, and the former was also stamped. However, at around 12 noon, she was detained in a room adjacent to the immigration counter, and informed that the immigration officers were seeking clarifications regarding some “remark” on her file. Ayyub was then informed over the course of the next hour that the officers had instructions from the ED to not allow her to board her flight to London, and the immigration stamp on her passport was stamped as “Cancelled”. When she inquired about the basis for such a decision, she was told that the ED would be sending her summons, which eventually arrived after two hours of her detention at the airport.
Grover told the judge that information sought in the latest summons was a verbatim copy of what was already sought by the ED through its summons issued on January 25. The ED has already received most of what it asked for from the Mumbai Zonal Office, and it forms part of the record, according to Grover.
Grover told the judge that Ayyub has been cooperating with the investigation, and made herself available as and when summoned. She is not a flight risk, and her parents live in Mumbai, Grover submitted.
Appearing for the ED, ASG Raju submitted that Ayyub is involved in a serious offence, and that her claim that she has provided all the documents asked for is misleading. He submitted that he would show that all documents have not been supplied by her. He added that she submitted fake bills in the names of some entity and that she transferred Rs 50 lakhs in her personal account.
After hearing both the sides, Justice Singh proceeded to call for a status report from the ED by Monday, even as Grover insisted that the delay would frustrate the scheduled trips of the petitioner rendering the petition infructuous.
During the first and second waves of COVID-19, Ayyub collected funds for charity via the crowd-funding website, ‘Ketto’. On August 28, 2021, the Ghaziabad-based Vikas Sankrityayan, who is reportedly the founder of an NGO named ‘Hindu IT Cell’, registered a complaint with the Ghaziabad Police against Ayyub, alleging that she had used crowd-funding between April 2020 and June 2021 on ketto.com to cheat the public on the pretext of charity. Later, on September 7, 2021, the police lodged a first information report [FIR] against her, including various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act. Following this FIR, the ED initiated a money-laundering probe against her.
In February, the ED attached 1.77 crore rupees from Ayyub’s accounts, alleging that this money was wrongfully obtained.
