Delhi: High Court grants permission to Journalist Rana Ayyub to travel abroad

On Monday, the Delhi High court allowed journalist Rana Ayyub to travel abroad While querying the Enforcement Directorate about a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against her barring her from travelling abroad last week.

Ayyub has been accused by the Enforcement directorate of being indulged in a money laundering case. Earlier Ayyub had moved to the Delhi HC challenging Enforcement Directorate's (ED) decision to stop her from flying abroad.

While lifting the travel ban on Monday, a bench led by Justice CD Singh observed that she is not accused of syphoning money worth thousands of crores.

Meanwhile, ASG SV Raju, speaking for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), stated, "We anticipate her to go away and not return." Our lawsuit will not be pursued any further. Money was stolen under the guise of COVID relief. No credit card information or other personal information is provided.

Moreover, Vrinda Grover, Rana Ayyub's lawyer, said it was a clear case of harassment and that Ayyub had valid reasons to return to India because her family lived here. She questioned why Ayub had not been summoned earlier in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation.

While opposing the journalist Rana Ayyub's appeal for quashing of the Lookout Circular (LoC) and disputing the ED's order to prevent her from flying abroad on the last date of hearing, the Enforcement Directorate said charges of money laundering are serious in nature.

However, Ayyub claimed on Twitter that the summons from the ED arrived late, after she had been stopped at Mumbai airport.

"I was stopped today at Mumbai immigration from delivering this address and moving on to the International Journalism Festival to delivering the keynote speech on Indian democracy," Ayyub tweeted. Despite the fact that I had made this announcement public for weeks, yet the ED summons arrived in my inbox after I was stopped."

She had been invited to the United Kingdom (UK) by the International Centre for Journalists, a Washington-based non-profit organisation for a debate on online violence against women journalists.

It may be mentioned that the money laundering charges against her stems from a FIR filed with the Ghaziabad Police Department in Uttar Pradesh in September of last year. Vikas Sankrityayan, a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad and the founder of an NGO named "Hindu IT Cell," filed the petition.