Journalist Rana Ayyub was halted at the Mumbai airport on her way to London to give a speech against journalist intimidation.
Journalist Rana Ayyub was halted at the Mumbai airport on her way to London to give a speech against journalist intimidation. She said that summons from the Enforcement Directorate arrived “very curiously” in her mailbox only after she was stopped at immigration.
She is accused in an alleged money laundering case that the ED is investigating.
Despite the International Centre for Journalists’ event being made public on social media weeks earlier, Ayyub tweeted that the summons arrived at the eleventh hour.
Responding to Rana Ayyub’s tweet, the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) said, “alarmed at the blatant legal harassment of Rana Ayyub by Indian authorities.”
The ICFJ further said, “We demand India’s central government end its instigation and inflammation of attacks on Rana Ayyub, which risk turning the digital lynch mob into a murderous horde.”
Referencing to continuous harassment of the WP journalist, ICFJ added, “She has been doxxed, repeatedly threatened with rape and murder, and she is legitimately afraid for her life. This must stop.”
“ICFJ stands with Rana Ayyub and we reiterate our demand for the Indian authorities to end their legal and digital harassment campaign against the multi-award-winning Washington Post journalist.”
In February , ED had already frozen Ayyub’s assets worth over Rs 1.77 crore.
Ayyub has been under investigation since September 2021, when an FIR was filed accusing her of obtaining cash for charity using the crowdfunding platform Ketto and then exploiting them for personal gain.
Ayyub is also accused of breaking the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act by allegedly taking foreign money without obtaining a government approval certificate or registration. Vikas Sankrityayan, the co-founder of Hindu IT Cell, a Hindu nationalist organization, known for targeted harassment, filed the complaint.
Responding to the allegations, Ayyub said that the latest FIR is “baseless” and “malicious,” and added that the “entire donation received through Ketto is accounted for not a single paisa has been misused.”
Last year, in June, Ghaziabad police booked her in June after she tweeted a Muslim man’s allegation of being assaulted by a Hindu mob. She had appealed to the Bombay High Court for four weeks of protection from arrest.
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