The Enforcement Directorate on Friday opposed before the Delhi High Court a petition by journalist Rana Ayyub seeking to quash a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against her, preventing her from travelling abroad. Ms. Ayyub was detained at the Mumbai Airport by the Bureau of Immigration on March 29 when she was travelling to London to attend a journalistic event.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, representing the agency, alleged that Ms. Ayyub was involved in a serious offence involving funds over ₹1 crore. The ASG said that the monies were received not only in dollars but also in rupees, that certain fake bills had been submitted by Ms. Ayyub, and money for relief work had been siphoned off.
Justice Chandra Dhari Singh granted time to the ASG to place certain facts on record and listed the matter for further hearing on April 4.
Ms. Ayyub, in her petition through advocates Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee, said that on March 29, she had arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, to board a flight to London to attend events on the global problem of cyber attacks on women journalists, as well as to deliver a keynote speech on the status of journalism in India. However, she was detained at the airport and officers of the Bureau of Immigration had told her that they had instructions from the ED to not allow her to board the flight, and the immigration stamp on her passport was stamped as “cancelled”.
Later, the ED also emailed her summons to her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and asked her to appear before the agency on April 1.
Ms. Grover argued that Ms. Ayyub has been cooperating and participating in the investigation.
Ms. Ayyub said she had responded to each and every summons issued by the ED under the PMLA, that she has also joined the investigation and recorded her statement, and provided necessary documents.
“There is thus nothing on record to suggest that the petitioner was evading the legal process. The respondent no. 2 [the ED] has already filed a complaint under the PMLA, 2002, under Section 5 and provisionally attached part of the petitioner’s bank account,” her plea said.
“The proceedings are now past the stage of inquiry/investigation and are pending before the PMLA Adjudicating Authority in New Delhi, where the petitioner is due to file her reply on or before April 17,” the petition added.
