Journalist Rana Ayyub moves Delhi HC against ED’s travel imposition

02-04-2022

On Tuesday, Ayyub was stopped at the Mumbai airport from boarding a flight to London where she was scheduled to address an event on targeting journalists.

Journalist Rana Ayyub has moved the Delhi High Court challenging a Enforcement Directorate notice that restrained her from travelling abroad, Live Law reported on Thursday.

Ayyub’s counsel sought an early hearing from Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla, saying that the journalist has to travel to London and Italy due to her prior commitments. He further said that her flight leaves on Friday.

The judges told the 37-year-old journalist’s counsel that the matter will be listed for hearing on Friday if the case is filed before 11 am today.

Ayyub, an outspoken critic of the Modi government and columnist for The Washington Post, was on Tuesday stopped at the Mumbai airport from boarding a flight to London because the Enforcement Directorate had issued a lookout notice for her.

In February, media reports had said that the Enforcement Directorate has attached over Rs 1.77-crore worth of Ayyub’s bank deposits in connection with a “money-laundering investigation” after the journalist started a fund-raising campaign to provide food and other relief to people struggling because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The petitioner being a journalist who speaks truth to power, is at times perceived to be a source of some discomfort or inconvenience for the government but that is no ground to deny the petitioner her right to travel abroad and exercise her freedom of speech and expression, as well as to practice her profession as a journalist,” Ayyub has argued in the petition.

The ED had registered a case against Ayyub in connection with the funds collected by her through the Ketto platform to help people during the pandemic, and has accused her of not utilizing the funds completely for the purpose they were raised.