Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub claimed today that she was stopped from leaving India at the immigration while trying to board a flight to London.
Taking to Twitter, the Washington Post columnist claimed she was on her way to London to deliver her speech on ‘intimidation of journalists’. From there, she claimed she was supposed to go to Italy to speak about the state of Indian democracy.
Rana Ayuub claimed that the events where she was to speak were publicized on her social media for weeks, but the summons from Enforcement Directorate came after she was stopped at immigration.
“I was stopped today at the Indian immigration while I was about to board my flight to London to deliver my speech on the intimidation of journalists with @ICFJ. I was to travel to Italy right after to deliver the keynote address at the @journalismfest on the Indian democracy
All these events with @julieposetti @DoughtyStIntl @journalismfest have been planned and publicised all over my social media for weeks. Yet, curiously the Enforcement directorate summon arrived in my mail much after I was stopped at the immigration. What do you fear ?
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) March 29, 2022
Rana Ayyub accused of misusing COVID funds for personal gains
In February 2022, Enforcement Directorate had attached assets worth Rs 1.77 crore of Ayyub over allegations of violation of provisions of the Money Laundering Act. The ED in its attachment order had said, “Rana Ayyub has cheated the general Public Donors in a pre-planned manner and with the intention to cheat the general public donors”.
The order says that Rana Ayyub’s scam started right from the time she collected the money and started withdrawing it from her savings account of herself and her family members. The ED order further said that a Fixed Deposit amounting to Rs 50 Lakh was booked from her savings bank account through net banking, and opening a separate Current bank account and subsequently, funds were transferred from her savings bank account and the bank account of her sister and father and did not utilize for the purpose for which it was raised by Rana Ayyub.
You can read the details about the allegations of misusing the covid funds collected by Rana here.
