The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a prosecution complaint equivalent of a chargesheet against alleged journalist & occasional Washington Post columnist Rana Ayuub for duping general people of their hard their hard earned money in the name of charity & Goodwill. The probe agency had earlier attached Rs 1.77 crore in the case.
The chargsheet was filed before a designated court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Wednesday. ED had registered a money laundering case against Rana Ayuub on the basis of an FIR registered by the UP Police in 2021.
The investigative agency said in a statement , ‘ The investigation has established that Rana Ayyub had launched the fund raising campaigns with the sole intention to cheat the general public and acquired proceeds of crime in form of fixed deposits and balances in bank accounts projecting them as untainted.’
“As per probe funds raised on online platforms were received in a/c of Rana Ayyub’s father & sister, & later transferred to her personal account. Ayyub utilized the funds to create FD of Rs 50 lakh for herself & transferred Rs 50 lakh in new account. Approximately, Rs 29 lakh used for relief work, the ED added to its public statement.
The investigation further revealed Rana Ayyub launched 3 fundraiser campaigns on ‘Ketto platform’ starting from April 2020, and collected funds totaling to Rs. 2,69,44,680/- that was collected in the name of relief work.
Her three campaigns were :
1) Help in raising funds for slum dwellers & farmers
2) Relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra
3) Help Rana Ayyub and her team to help those impacted by Covid19 in India.
The ED investigation has established that Ayyub had launched the aforesaid campaigns with the “sole intention to cheat the general public.
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