ED files charge sheet against Rana Ayyub in money laundering case

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against journalist Rana Ayyub in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case lodged against her for misusing funds collected in the name of help and charity through a website ketto.com.

She has been accused by the ED of trying to cheat common people. The ED has claimed that she illegally acquired funds from the common public.

With this charge sheet, the trouble has mounted for Ayyub as the ED has made it a watertight case.

A copy of this was accessed by IANS where the case details were given.

"Funds totalling to Rs 2,69,44,680/-were raised on Ketto by Rana Ayyub. These funds were withdrawn in the bank accounts of her sister/father. Out of this amount, Rs 72,01,786/- was withdrawn in her own bank account, Rs 37,15,072/- was withdrawn in her sister Iffat Shaikh's account and Rs 1,60,27,822/ was withdrawn in her father Mohd Ayyub Waquif's bank account. All these funds from her sister's and father's account were subsequently transferred in her own account," read the order accessed by IANS.

The order further read that Rana Ayyub submitted information/documents of expense to the tune of Rs 31,16,770, however after verification of the claimed expenses, it surfaced that the actual expenses was only of Rs 17,66,970.

"Fake bills were found to have been prepared by Ayyub in the name of some entities to claim expenses on relief work. Expenses made for personal travel by air were claimed as expense for relief work," it said.

Investigations conducted by the Directorate of Enforcement have made it abundantly clear that the funds were raised in the name of charity in a completely pre-planned and systematic manner and the funds were not utilised completely for the purpose of which the funds were raised.

Investigations disclosed that instead of utilizing the funds for the relief work, Rana Ayyub parked some of the funds by opening a separate current bank account. She also created a Fixed Deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds raised on Ktto and subsequently did not utilize these for relief works.

She deposited a total of Rs 74.50 lakh in PM Cares fund and CM Relief Fund.

"Accordingly, at the stage of investigation, the proceeds of crime are quantified as Rs 1,77,27,704/ and the interest generated upon the said FD of Rs 50 lakh," the order read.

The ED official said that Ayyub allegedly misused the funds. She allegedly diverted the funds into other accounts for her personal expenses.

Earlier, on August 28, 2021, one Vikas Sankrityayan, had lodged a complaint with the Ghaziabad Police against Ayyub alleging that she cheated the general public in the name of charity.

Acting on his complaint on September 7, 2021 an FIR was lodged against her at the Indirapuram police station. She was booked under sections 403, 406, 418, 420 of the IPC, read with section 66D of Information Technology Act.

Later, on the basis of this FIR, the ED also initiated a money laundering probe against Ayyub.