New Delhi: Journalist Rana Ayyub was denied boarding a flight to London on Tuesday because she is an accused in a money laundering case under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate.
Before she could take a trip to London, Ms Ayyub was stopped at Mumbai airport.
Ms Ayyub is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly violating foreign funding regulations while collecting donations for COVID-19 aid.
The journalist, however, tweeted the Enforcement Directorate’s summons “very curiously” reached her inbox only after she was stopped at Mumbai airport.
“I was stopped today at Mumbai immigration from travelling to deliver this address and on-wards to International Journalism Festival to deliver the keynote speech on Indian democracy. I had made this announcement public over weeks, yet the ED (Enforcement Directorate) summon very curiously arrived in my inbox after I was stopped,” Ms Ayyub tweeted.
Ms Ayyub had been invited to the UK by the International Centre for Journalists, a Washington-based non-profit, for a lecture on online abuse against women journalists. Ms. Ayyub has frequently tweeted that she has been harassed online and has received death threats from trolls.
On April 1, the Enforcement Directorate has summoned her for questioning.
The money laundering complaint against Ms Ayyub is based on a First Information Report or FIR submitted by Vikas Sankrityayan, the founder of an NGO named “Hindu IT Cell” and a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, with the Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad Police in September.
According to a document ascribed to “ED sources,” the agency that investigates financial crimes discovered that between 2020 and 2021, the journalist raised approximately 2.69 crore for charity causes through an internet crowdfunding site called Ketto.
The money laundering complaint against Ms Ayyub is based on a First Information Report or FIR submitted by Vikas Sankrityayan, the founder of an NGO named “Hindu IT Cell” and a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, with the Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad Police in September.
According to a document ascribed to “ED sources,” the agency that investigates financial crimes discovered that between 2020 and 2021, the journalist raised approximately 2.69 crore for charity causes through an internet crowdfunding site called Ketto.
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