India strongly rebuts UN claiming judicial harassment of Rana Ayyub; calls it Unwarranted

India on Monday strongly rebutted the United Nations' stand on journalist and columnist Rana Ayyub. India labelled the United Nations' allegation of judicial harassment towards Ayyub, as 'baseless and unwarranted'. Highlighting that India upholds the rule of law, the country added, 'But no one is above the law'.

"We expect SRs to be objective & accurately informed. Advancing a misleading narrative only tarnishes UN Geneva’s reputation," India further said in the tweet. Rana Ayyub is under the lenses of the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged charity fund scandal. The scandal allegedly pertains to three campaigns started by Ayyub - Funds for slum dwellers and farmers (April- May 2020), Relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra (June- Sept 2020), and Help for COVID-19 impacted people in India (May-June 2021) - from which the journalist via the crowdfunding portal 'Ketto.org' is said to have raised crores of Rupees. 

While the matter is under investigation, the United Nations earlier in the day on its official Twitter handle uploaded a tweet urging the Indian authorities to investigate the relentless misogynistic and sectarian attacks online against journalist Rana Ayyub. 'And the judicial harassment against her brought to an end at once," the tweet read. 

ED's provisional attachment order details the sequence of events

As per the ED's provisional attachment order, Rana Ayyub raised a total of Rs 2.69 crore via Ketto. The funds were raised for three campaigns - one for slum dwellers and farmers during April-May 2020, the second for relief work for Assam, Bihar & Maharashtra during September 2020 and the third for COVID-19 impacted people during May-June 2021. The funds were allegedly withdrawn from the bank accounts of her sister (Rs 37 lakh), her father (Rs 1.6 crore) and her own account (Rs. 72 lakh). The funds from her father's & sister's bank accounts were then transferred to her own.

The ED order continues that she submitted documents of expense worth Rs 31 lakh. However, after verification, it emerged that the actual expenses were to the tune of Rs 17.6 lakh. The ED then alleges that fake bills were found to have been prepared by Rana Ayyub in the name of some entities to claim expenses on relief, including expenses allegedly made for personal travel by air.

The ED's order then says, "Investigations conducted by Directorate of Enforcement make 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 utilized completely for the purpose of which the funds were raised.”

It goes on to add that the probe revealed that Rana Ayyub parked some of the funds in a separate bank account instead of utilising the funds and also created a Rs 50 lakh fixed deposit from the crowdsourced funds and subsequently didn't use it for relief. Furthermore, she also deposited Rs 74.5 lakh in the PM-Cares and CM Relief funds.

Finally, the ED's attachment order concludes, “Accordingly, at the stage of the 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."