New Delhi: Journalist Rana Ayyub has landed in soup over alleged charges of money laundering. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached her assets worth Rs 1.77 crores under the money laundering act for cheating ‘public donors’, reported a leading daily.
“Rana Ayyub has cheated the general Public Donors in a pre-planned manner and with the intention to cheat the general public donors”, the ED reportedly said in its attachment order.
According to reports, the scribe launched a campaign on Ketto.org and started receiving money in her and her family savings bank account but this money got directed towards ‘other purposes’. The ED, in its investigation, found that she got a Fixed Deposit of Rs 50 lakh done from money in savings account and also opened a Current bank account. Subsequently, funds were transferred from her & family’s savings account to current account and unknown sources.
“Having perused and taken into consideration the material before me, I have reason to believe that the aforesaid amounts, mentioned under Para 21 above represents value of Proceeds of Crime, as defined under section 2 (1) (u) of PMLA, 2002, in possession of Ms. Rana Ayyub, obtained directly or indirectly, as a result of criminal activity relating to schedule offence, which is likely to be transferred or dealt with by way of alienation or transfer, or creating of a third party interest, in a manner which may result into frustrating the proceedings relating to confiscation of such value of proceeds of crime under Chapter III of PMLA, 2002 and thus the aforesaid amounts are liable for immediate provisional attachment as provided under sub-section (1) of section 5 of PMLA”, the attachment order stated.
Citing the above, the premiere investigative agency attached the amount received by Rana Ayyub for a period of 180 days.
When some media persons tried to reach out to the scribe for confirmation on the attachment of her assets, she denied receiving any ED notice or attachment order.
The police is yet to register a chargesheet in the matter. However, the ED has justified its action of confiscating her assets. It says that if it was not attached now, the money would have been siphoned off, making it impossible for the agency to track down its whereabouts.
