High court of Delhi lifts travel ban on journalist Rana Ayyub
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The Delhi High Court has cleared Rana Ayyub to travel abroad, subject to some conditions. He was barred from flying to London last week.
The Enforcement Directorate is investigating whether Ms Ayyub is involved in money laundering.
The agency on Friday opposed the petition in the Delhi High Court, saying the charges against her were "serious." The proceedings against her were challenged in the Delhi High Court where the agency opposed the petition.
New Delhi: During her appearance on behalf of Ms Ayyub, senior attorney Vrinda Grover argued that her bank accounts had been seized.
As part of its investigation of alleged violations of foreign funding rules, the Enforcement Directorate is looking into donations collected for COVID-19 relief by Ms Ayyub.
In a tweet, the journalist pointed out that the summons from the Enforcement Directorate seemingly arrived only after she had been stopped at Mumbai's airport.
"I was stopped today at Mumbai immigration from travelling to deliver this address and onwards to International Journalism Festival to deliver the keynote speech on Indian democracy. I had made this announcement public over weeks, yet the ED (Enforcement Directorate) summon very curiously arrived in my inbox after I was stopped," Ms Ayyub wrote on Twitter.
Ms Ayyub has often tweeted she has faced online harassment and death threats from trolls. She was to attend an event on online violence against women journalists hosted by the Washington-based non-profit, International Centre for Journalists.
Ms Ayyub is being charged with money laundering based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed by an Individual called Vikas Sankrityayan of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Vikas was the founder of a non-profit organization, Hindu IT Cell, and a resident of Indirapuram.
The agency that investigates financial crimes had discovered through an E-Tip-to-Ketto platform between 2020 and 2021 that the journalist raised over 2.69 crore through crowdfunding for charitable purposes, according to a document attributed to "ED sources."