New Delhi: Journalist Rana Ayyub on Thursday approached Delhi High Court seeking permission to travel abroad after being stopped by authorities from boarding a London-bound flight on Tuesday. Ayyub's petition was presented before Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Naveen Chawla. Upon her lawyer requesting an early listing on Friday morning, the bench noted that it would be listed on Friday provided the filing of the petition gets completed by 11 am.
The journalist is facing a money laundering case for having allegedly misused funds gathered through the charity website www.ketto.com. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), back in February, attached assets worth Rs 1.77 crore belonging to Ayyub. It claimed at the time that the money was traced back to the alleged crime. Ayyub was stopped while on her way to the United Kingdom, in order to deliver a speech at the International Centre for Journalists.
Also read: ED stops journalist Rana Ayyub from flying abroad, asks her to join probe
Significantly, she recently alleged that the ED summons arrived in her inbox post-stoppage. The agency's claim in the case has been that the funds were not utilized for the purpose for which they were raised, explaining that she opened a separate bank account to secure a portion of the funds while making a fixed deposit of another Rs 50 lakhs without utilizing it for the charitable cause.
(With agency inputs)
