New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against journalist Rana Ayub under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, alleging that he used Rs 2.69 crore raised publicly for himself and the Foreign Contribution Act. also violated.
On the federal agency, October 12 filed a prosecution complaint against Ayub before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). In a statement issued on Thursday, the ED said, “Rana Ayub started three charity campaigns through ‘Keto Platform’ from April 2020 with a view to raising funds for charitable work and collected a total of Rs 2,69,44,680”. “
Keto is an online platform for collecting money. He said that these campaigns were conducted to help Ayub and his team to raise funds for slum dwellers and farmers, to do relief work in Assam, Bihar, and Maharashtra, and to help those affected by Covid-19 in India. Had gone. The ED said that during the investigation it was found that the money raised from the online platform was received in the accounts of Ayub’s father and sister and it was later transferred to their personal accounts.
The agency claimed, “Ayub kept Rs 50 lakh out of these funds in his fixed deposit (FD) and Rs 50 lakh was transferred to a new bank account. The investigation found that only Rs 29 lakh was used for relief work.” “Ayub has submitted fake bills to claim that the excess amount has been spent for the relief work,” the statement said.
The directorate said that an amount of Rs 1,77,27,704 (including FD of Rs 50 lakh) in Ayub’s accounts were seized under PMLA. The ED alleged that Ayub raised Rs 2.69 crore “illegally” and “betrayed” the public. The agency said, “These funds were not used for the intended purpose, but for the creation of assets for themselves. Ayub has tried to make these funds appear legitimate.”
Reacting to the development, Ayub said the charge sheet is “another desperate attempt to target and intimidate me for my work. This is yet another example of misuse of PMLA law and law enforcement agencies to silence me.” She tweeted, “My pen can never be silent. The funny thing is that just yesterday I had a seminar here in the US on the attack on the free press in India. I will continue to raise my voice against the exploitation of the underprivileged in the country.”
Ayub said, “I am sure this misuse of the process by the ED will not survive the stage of judicial review. I will not shy away from playing my part as a journalist.” The ED alleged, “Ayub also received these funds from abroad without the mandatory government approval or registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010.” The money laundering case pertains to the Ghaziabad Police’s FIR registered in September 2021 for alleged irregularities in donated funds.
