Rana Ayyub Stopped At Airport In Connection With Enforcement Directorate Summon

On Tuesday, journalist and author Rana Ayyub was stopped at the Mumbai Airport from boarding a flight to London in connection with a summon issued by Enforcement Directorate. Ayyub shared the incident via her Twitter handle, adding that the reason she was stopped from leaving the country was a lookout notice issued by ED in her name. She also alleged that the law enforcement agency had sent a summon for her to appear on April 1 at the last moment.

Ayyub, who is the author of the bestselling book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy Of A Cover Up, had an event scheduled for April 1 with top jurors, editors and diplomats in the world. Then, on the same day, she was supposed to be speaking at The Guardian's office. She was invited there by the editor of the newspaper, Katharine Viner. Later on April 6 and 7, she was going to be in Italy for the International Journalism Festival.

Rana Ayyub stopped at airport in Mumbai

She told the Scroll, "I had tweeted about all the events three weeks in advance. My flight was at 3 PM today (Tuesday). The immigration people were confused. An hour after back and forth, the ED told the immigration to tell me that they are sending me a summons to appear on April 1. The summons was received by me today on mail around 2 PM, exactly an hour before departure."

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She also said that she has submitted the required documents to the ED. Reportedly, she had been issued a showcause notice for which she had been given a month to reply. She added that there was no summons by ED and the last one was in the first week of January. "And each summons was honoured and documents submitted," she said.

In her tweet, 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."

She added, "All these events with @julieposetti @DoughtyStlntl @journalismfest have been planned and publicised all over my social media for weeks. Yet, curiously the Enforcement Directorate summons arrived in my mail much after I was stopped at the immigration. What do you fear?"

In February this year, the ED had attached over Rs 1.77 crore worth of Ayyub's bank deposits in relation to the "money laundering investigation." This happened after the journalist had started a fund-raising campaign in order to provide food and relief to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This case against Ayyub was based on the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police in September 2021. The case was filed by the Hindutva group titled the Hindu IT Cell, which had alleged that the journalist was illegally collecting money through fundraising online.

The group alleged that Ayyub had been receiving foreign funds without government approval. On the allegations against her, the ED told PTI that Ayyub had raised Rs 2, 69, 44, 680 on Ketto and had created a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds instead of diverting it to the relief work.