New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken major action under the Money Laundering Act against leftist journalist Rana Ayyub for extorting money in the name of helping people and siphoning off that money. The agency has attached assets worth Rs 1.77 crore of Ayyub. The ED has said that Rana Ayyub has cheated the common people under a plan.
The ED order said Rana Ayyub's scam started from the same time he started withdrawing it from his and his family's saving account after depositing the money. According to ED, Ayyub's fixed amount of Rs 50 lakh was booked from net banking and a separate current account was opened. The funds were later transferred from his savings bank account and the bank accounts of her sister and father. However, it was not used for the purpose for which the money was raised through Ketto.org.
The ED, in its order, termed the funds raised by Rana Ayyub as "proceeds of crime" and said that it (fund) has been acquired, occupied, used and then presented as clean assets, but still, it is a punishable offence under Section 4 of money laundering as defined under Section 3 of the Money Laundering Act, 2002. Let us know that the action taken against the journalist is considered a scheduled offence under the PMLA Act. However, the UP Police has not yet filed any chargesheet in the case. However, the investigating agency has said that even if the agency waits for the filing of the charge sheet and does not attach the property of Rana Ayyub to the ED, the agency has reason to believe that the money will be stolen. In such a situation, it will not be possible to attach it later.
An FIR was lodged against journalist Rana Ayyub, who has often been embroiled in controversies due to his statements, under sections 403, 406, 418, 420 of the IPC, section 66D of the IT Act and section 4 of the Money Laundering Act-2002 at the Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad on September 7, 2021. In this, Ayyub has been accused of recovering money from common people in the wrong way in the name of charity. Vikas Shakrityayan of the Hindu IT Cell had lodged the FIR in August 2021.
The FIR mentions three operations carried out by Rana:-
(A) Collection of funds in the name of interest of slum dwellers and farmers during April-May 2020.
(B) Collection of money in the name of relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra during June-September 2020.
(C) Collecting funds for help for people affected by COVID-19 in India during May-June 2021.
The FIR states that Rana Ayyub is a journalist by profession and was receiving foreign funds without any consent or permission from the government. Whereas, permission or registration of the government is mandatory under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 to do so.
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