Rana Ayyub moves Delhi HC against travel restrictions

Journalist Rana Ayyub on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court seeking permission to travel abroad as she was restrained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from leaving the country.

She is facing a Prevention of Money Laundering case for allegedly misusing funds collected for charity through the website ketto.com, and the ED in February attached her assets worth Rs 1.77 crore claiming that the money traced to the proceeds of crime.

Her's counsel appealed for an urgent hearing in the matter before the bench headed by acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and also comprising Justice Navin Chawla, as his client has to travel abroad on Friday.

The court said in case the plea was filed before 11 a.m. on Thursday, it will be listed for Friday.

Rana was stopped at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday when she was about to board a flight to the UK to deliver a speech at the International Centre for Journalists, and accused the ED of summoning her despite making her programme public in advance.

She had alleged that the ED's summon arrived in her inbox after she was stopped.

The ED claimed that its investigations found that the funds were raised in the name of charity in a completely pre-planned and systematic manner but were not utilised completely for the purpose for which they were raised.

It said Ayyub parked some of the funds by opening a separate current bank account, and also created a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds raised by Ketto and subsequently did not utilise them for relief work.