Mumbai-based Islamist Propagandist Rana Ayyub is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate for misusing funds collected in the name of Covid-19 victims.
Rana Ayyub, on Tuesday (March 29), was stopped at the Mumbai airport from flying to London. She is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate for misusing funds she collected for helping Covid-19 victims.
In a post on Twitter, Ayyub wrote, “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.”
In February this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached Ayyub’s assets worth INR 1.77 crore over allegations of violation of provisions of the Money Laundering Act. The ED, in its attachment order, said, “Rana Ayyub has cheated the general Public Donors in a pre-planned manner and with the intention to cheat the general public donors”.
Suspicions were raised over her fund collection drive in 2020 when some netizens questioned how funds were collected with the stated purpose of helping the poor.
In August last year, fundraising platform Keto had informed donors through the mail that funds raised by Islamist propagandist Rana Ayyub are under investigation by the Indian authorities for possible flouting of norms and regulations.
As reported by Organiser in May last year, Ayyub stopped a fundraiser she was running on fundraiser website Ketto after multiple irregularities were reported, including FCRA violations.
She was running a fundraiser in the name of migrant workers who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The irregularities came to light when a Twitter user with the handle @parixit111 posted that the donation receipt carried a message that the donations were not exempted under 80G. Donations made to registered NGOs are exempted from taxes under 80G.
Ayyub was receiving the money in her personal account. In the campaign, there was no mention of any NGO.
On multiple occasions, Ayyub posted that she would put out all her records for public scrutiny, but she never did it and continued with her victimhood narrative.
Continuing her victimhood narrative, Ayyub said on Tuesday (March 29), “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?”
Journalist J Gopikrishnan, who has covered Indian investigative agencies for a long time, said that all such LookOut Circulars are top secret, and the person under the scanner gets to know about it only after he/she lands at the airport. “Look Out Circular (LoC) by agencies to prevent a person from flying aboard always top secret & supposed to be known to the person when lands in Immigration for travelling. Only once it was leaked in 2017. Karti Chidambaram’s LoC was leaked & he approached SC to cancel it. Who leaked?,” Shri Gopikrishnan posted on Twitter.
