Preposterous, wholly mala fide: Rana Ayyub breaks silence on ED probe

Mumbai, Feb 11: Rana Ayyub, accused of misappropriating Covid-19 relief funds on Friday issued a statement in response to allegations made against her by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

"It is abundantly clear that no part of the relief campaign fund remains unaccounted for, and there is absolutely no scope for any remote allegation of misuse of the funds for personal expenses. Such allegations are preposterous, wholly mala fide and belied by record, and is a deliberate misreading of my bank statements," the statement said.

"All personal expenses borne by me are out of my personal income and savings. I have demonstrably shown, before the Income Tax Department, as also before two zonal offices of the ED, that no part of the relief campaign money has been used for any other purpose. It is pertinent that the only unutilised part of the fund, viz. the Fixed Deposit of 50 lakhs, could not be used as it was provisionally attached by the Income Tax Department from 07.08.2021 till 07.02.2022," it added.

"The various allegations reported by the media, who seem to be in possession of the Provisional Attachment Order dt. 04.02.2022 of the ED, which I do not have a copy of, are utterly baseless, mala fide and fanciful. For now, since I had raised public money through the campaigns, I am sharing an account of how the public money was spent, in order to assuage any doubts about their use and maintain transparency, the statement further said.

"The smear campaign against me will not deter me from my professional commitment to continue to do my work as a journalist, and especially to raise critical issues and ask inconvenient questions, as is my duty as a journalist in a constitutional democracy," it added.

"I am confident that the allegations levelled against me will not withstand any fair and honest scrutiny," the statement concluded.

The Enforcement Directorate has attached over Rs 1.77 crore worth bank deposits of journalist Rana Ayyub, in connection with a money laundering probe against her. The probe is linked to alleged irregularities in charitable funds raised from public donors.

According to the FIR, the funds were raised as part of three campaigns; funds for slum dwellers and farmers during April-May 2020, relief work in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra during June-September 2020, and help for COVID-19 impacted people in India during May-June 2021.