Rana Ayyub, accused of donation fraud, downplays embezzled fund as ‘small amount’

New Delhi: Journalist Rana Ayyub, accused of siphoning off public money for personal gains, again courted controversy on Saturday as she sought to downplay the embezzled fund as ‘small amount’.

The journalist being probed for alleged money laundering sought to play ‘victim card’ and claimed that she was portrayed in wrong light by a section of the press.

While putting forth her views before the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Director Julie Posetti, Ayyub insinuated that ₹10-12 crores was a small sum of money and it did not merit public scrutiny.

“Now there is a case of money laundering against me. I will give you a small example. The other day when I was trying to get a court verdict to come here to speak. Just look at the lawlessness. The Judge said that this is just a small amount. Even if it was 10 or 12 crores, why does it merit coming here?”, Ayyub remarked.

Dear @julieposetti,

₹10 crore to ₹12 crore that @RanaAyyub mentioned, it is worth $1.3 million & not $20,000

Thats a huge amount while an avg. Indian earns $1,900 in an entire year

I was taken aback when she didn’t correct you, but said “exactly” pretending to be tiny amount pic.twitter.com/kLw3LieHbn

— Karthik Reddy ?? (@bykarthikreddy) April 8, 2022

Months ago, Rana Ayyub’s assets worth Rs 1.77 crore were attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged diversion of funds collected by her NGO.

She received funds from various sources, as part of crowdfunding, and it was meant to offer relief to Covid-hit families & victims but she diverted the charity amount towards personal use.

According to investigations, it was found that instead of using funds for Covid relief work, she parked a part of this fund in a separate bank amount. She reportedly also got an FD done out of the charity fund and diverted it to accounts of close relatives.