ED attaches journalist Rana Ayyub's funds in money laundering case
New Delhi, Feb 10: The Enforcement Directorate has attached over Rs 1.77 crore worth bank deposits of journalist Rana Ayyub in connection with a money laundering probe against her linked to alleged irregularities in charitable funds raised from public donors, agency sources said on Thursday.
The federal investigation agency had issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach a Rs 50 lakh worth fixed deposit and the rest amount kept as bank deposits and held in two accounts of a private bank in Navi Mumbai.
Ayyub is the account holder and deposits totalling Rs 1,77,27,704 have been attached by the ED.
The money laundering case against Ayyub was filed after taking cognisance of a September, 2021 FIR of Ghaziabad Police (Uttar Pradesh) related to alleged irregularities in donor funds of over Rs 2.69 crore raised by her through an online crowd funding platform called 'Ketto'.
The police lodged the case on a complaint made by Vikas Sankrityayan, founder of an NGO called "Hindu IT Cell" and a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad.
Ayyub had then stated that the "entire donation received through Ketto is accounted for and not a single paisa has been misused".
According to the FIR, the funds were raised as part of three campaigns: funds for slum dwellers and farmers during April-May 2020; relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra during June-September 2020; and help for COVID-19 impacted people in India during May-June 2021.
"Funds totalling Rs 2,69,44,680 were raised on Ketto by Rana Ayyub. These funds were withdrawn in the bank accounts of her sister and father," the agency said.
Out of this amount, Rs 72,01,786 was withdrawn in her own bank account, Rs 37,15,072 withdrawn in her sister Iffat Shaikh's account, and Rs 1,60,27,822 was withdrawn in her father Mohd Ayyub Waquif's bank account, it said.
All these funds, the ED found, were subsequently "transferred" in Ayyub's own account.
Ayyub submitted documents of expense for Rs 31,16,770 to the ED, however, after verification of the claimed expenses, the agency found that the actual expenses were to the tune of Rs 17,66,970, the agency stated.
"Fake bills were found to have been prepared by Rana Ayyub in the name of some entities to claim expenses on relief work. Expenses made for personal travel by air were claimed as expense for relief work," it alleged.
The ED said its probe "makes it abundantly clear that the funds were raised in the name of charity in a completely pre-planned and systematic manner, and the funds were not utilised completely for the purpose of which the funds were raised".
"Instead of utilising the funds for the relief work, Rana Ayyub parked some of the funds by opening a separate current bank account," it said.
Ayyub, it added, created the fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds raised on the online platform and subsequently "did not utilise" these for relief work.
The agency found Ayyub "deposited a total of Rs 74.50 lakh in PM Cares fund and CM Relief Fund."
The attachment order of the ED can be challenged before the Adjudicating Authority of PMLA.
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National security breach: Court sends 7 foreigners to 30-day judicial custody
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court on Monday sent seven foreign nationals, including six Ukrainians, accused of breaching national security, to 30 days in judicial custody.
The foreign nationals were produced before NIA Special Judge Prashant Sharma after the completion of their NIA custody.
On March 16, the court had allowed 11 days of custody to the federal agency for interrogation, which was then extended by another 10 days.
On Monday, the judge allowed the NIA's plea seeking judicial custody of the accused, identified as US national Matthew Aaron Van Dyke and Ukrainian nationals Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor.
In the remand application on March 16, the investigation officer, citing the FIR, said that some Ukrainians had entered India on tourist visas on separate dates and flew to Guwahati, from where they travelled to Mizoram without obtaining the requisite documents, such as the Restricted Area Permit or Protected Area Permit.
Thereafter, these individuals illegally entered Myanmar to impart pre-scheduled training for Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAO) in that country, the IO said.
In its order allowing NIA custody, the court said the allegations made in the FIR should not be seen in a piecemeal manner.
"No doubt the FIR in question talks about the accused persons travelling to Mizoram, which is a prohibited area, without permission and thereafter crossing over to Myanmar illegally. But it also mentions that the accused persons, linked to Ethnic Armed Organisations (in Myanmar), are (also) supporting certain proscribed Indian insurgent groups by supplying weapons and terrorist hardware and imparting training to them," the order said.
It said these allegations definitely involved national security and the country's interests, and broadly attract Section 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
