Rana Ayyub, journalist assets worth Rs. 1.77 crore frozen over money laundering

Rana Ayyub, journalist and a vocal critic of the ruling BJP, has been locked up by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has accused her of money laundering and defrauding funds collected for philanthropic use.
The ED has attached assets worth Rs 1.77 crore of alleged journalists Rana Ayyub under the Money Laundering Act. The ED, in its attachment order, said, “Rana Ayyub has cheated the general Public Donors in a pre-planned manner and with the intention to cheat the general public donors”.
According to the order, funds amounting to Rs. 2, 69, 44,680 were raised on Ketto by Rana Ayyub Rana.
The scam started right after she started withdrawing it from the savings account of her sister and father.
The ED order further said that a fixed deposit amounting to Rs. 50 lakh was created from her saving bank account through net banking and opening a separate Current bank account and subsequently, funds were transferred from her saving bank account and bank account of her sister and father and did not utilize these for relief work.
The ED termed the funds raised as misused by Rana Ayyub and tagged it as “proceeds of crime.” Further, the body order that Rana Ayyub knowingly indulged in “Proceeds of Crime including its acquisition, possession, use and projecting it as untainted property and therefore, she has committed the offense of money laundering as defined under section 3 of the Act, 2002 which is punishable under section 4 of the Act”. The actions by Ayyub are considered scheduled offenses under the PMLA.
While the Uttar Pradesh Police has not yet filed a charge sheet in the case, the ED has stated that if the assets of Rana Ayyub are not attached by the ED, the department has reason to believe that this money would be drawn off, making it impossible for the amount to be attached later, if the ED were to wait for the charge sheet to be filed.
Considering the reasons stated, ED provisionally attached the amount collected by Rana Ayyub, obtained and used criminally, for a period of 180 days from the date of the issuance of this order.