Rana Ayyub has yet to comment on these allegations.
New Delhi:
Rs 1.77 crore of journalist Rana Ayyub, a vocal critic of the ruling BJP, has been siphoned off by the Enforcement Directorate or ED, which has accused him of money laundering and siphoning off funds collected for philanthropic use.
Sources in the agency said it had issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach a fixed deposit and bank accounts in the name of him and his family. Attached to a property means that it cannot be transferred, altered or transferred.
Ms Job has yet to comment on the allegations.
The money laundering case against Ms. Ayub is based on a first information report or FIR filed by Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad police in September by Vikas Sankrityayan – the founder of an NGO called “Hindu IT Cell” and a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad.
According to a document attributed to “ED sources”, the agency investigating financial crimes found that the journalist had raised over Rs 2.69 crore through an online crowdfunding platform called Keto for charitable purposes between 2020 and 2021.
Ms Job then said that “the entire donation received through keto is accounted for and not a single penny has been misused”.
“A total of Rs 2,69,44,680 funds were raised by Rana Ayyub on Keto. These funds were withdrawn into the bank accounts of his sister and father,” the Enforcement Directorate note said. Ayub’s own account.
Ms Ayyub submitted documents of expenditure of around Rs 31 lakh to the ED, however, after verification of the claimed expenses, the agency said it found that the actual expenditure was only Rs 17.66 lakh.
It alleged, “Fake bills were prepared by Rana Ayyub in the name of some entities to claim expenditure on relief work. The expenses incurred for air travel were claimed as relief work expenses.”
The agency said its investigation “makes it abundantly clear that the funds were raised in a purely pre-planned and systematic manner in the name of charity, and were not fully utilized for the funds for which the funds were raised.” “.
It added that Ms Ayub made a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds raised on the online platform and later “did not use” these for relief work.
The agency also found that Ms. Ayub “deposited a total of Rs 74.50 lakh to the PM CARES Fund and the CM Relief Fund.”
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