Delhi HC seeks ED's response on Rana Ayyub's plea

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was sought by the Delhi High Court the response to the petition filed by journalist Rana Ayyub, requesting permission for travelling abroad after she was restrained from the same by the probe agency, IANS reported.

On Friday, however, the court did not grant her any interim relief, and she will miss a scheduled address at an international conference in London.

The case is listed for hearing on April 4, and Justice Chandra Dhari Singh will be hearing it.

The bench asked the ED to submit a status report on the case against the journalist by 2:30 pm on April 4.

Rana Ayyub was charged with a Prevention of Money Laundering case after her alleged misusing of funds collected for charity through the website kettto.com. In February, ED had attached her assets worth Rs 1.77 crore and claimed that the money was traced to the crime.

On Tuesday, she was stopped at the Mumbai Airport while she was about to leave for the UK to address an event at the International Centre for Journalists. She said that the ED had summoned her despite her making her programme public in advance. She received a summons after she was stopped at the airport.

The ED claimed that its probe found that funds were raised in the name of charity in a pre-planned systematic manner but were not utilized for the purpose mentioned when raised. It said that she had deposited some of the funds by opening a separate bank account and created another fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds raised by Ketto. She did not use the latter for the said relief work, ED alleged.