Breaking: Delhi High Court Permits Rana Ayyub To Travel Abroad Subject To Conditions

The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed the plea filed by Journalist Rana Ayyub against Enforcement Directorate's action of restraining her from leaving the country, citing apprehensions of evading probe in an ongoing money laundering case.Justice Chandra Dhari Singh allowed the writ petition, subject to certain conditions."Deposit some money. Also inform agencies, where you're staying. Share phone number etc.," the Judge said orally.Detailed order with conditions will soon follow.Rana Ayyub had approached the Court challenging Enforcement Directorate's action of restraining her from leaving the country. The plea therefore prayed that she must be enabled to travel out of India, and that any order or Look Out Circular or direction preventing her from travelling abroad be quashed and set aside.Ayyub is also scheduled to travel from London to Rome on 05.04.2022 to address the Keynote Speech at the Perugia International Journalism Festival, 2022, where she is scheduled to speak about the state of journalism in India, and then return to Mumbai on 11.04.2022 via London.An enquiry was initiated by Mumbai Zonal Office of the Enforcement Directorate under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) against Ayyub last year over some funds received by her from the crowd funding campaigns on Ketto platform.It is Ayyub's case that she had ran a third crowdfunding campaign on Ketto, for the purpose of providing help for Covid-19 impacted people across India during the deadly second wave of the pandemic in the country.Ayyub was detained on March 29, 2022 in a room adjacent to the immigration counter and was informed that the immigration officers of Bureau of Immigration were seeking clarifications regarding some "remark" on her file.The plea thus avers that Ayyub was then informed, that the immigration officers had instructions from theEnforcement Directorate to not allow her to board her flight to London, and accordingly her immigration stamp on her passport was stamped as "Cancelled".The plea states that when Ayyub requested the immigration officers to furnish any written communication or order barring her from travelling to attend journalism related events in London, nothing was shown her, however she was informed that the ED will be emailing summons to her, thereby forming the basis for the decision to disallow her from travelling.According to the plea, almost two hours after Ayyu had been detained at the airport, ED emailed summons to her under The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 directing her to appear before it on April 1.During the course of hearing today, Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Ayyub argued before the Court that the power to issue look out circular is an extraordinary power which has to be exercised by the executive and investigating agencies only in exceptional circumstances, in a non arbitrary manner. "I am basing my case on records which cannot be disputed. 1.77 crores provisionally attached by ED, how can I dispose of alleged attached amounts? Why is this kind of arbitrariness in show?," Grover argued. She added "Why I'm saying there are some extraneous considerations in play, there cannot be somebody who is cooperating more than I am. Petitioner is a renowned Journalist. Press is the fourth pillar of democracy. I ask questions, that is the job of a Free Press . Yes I have published articles including in prestigious organizations. They may be disagreeable, but can that be a ground to stop me?"Referring to the status report filed by ED, Grover argued that the same contained no reasonable reasons and that the only reason mentioned was that there is an "apprehension". "But apprehension cannot be a fanciful imaginary or something directly contradictory to record," Grover argued. On the other hand, ASG SV Raju appearing for ED claimed that there was an apprehension that Ayyub will flee the country and not return back, if allowed to travel abroad.At the outset, Justice Chandra Dhari Singh asked Raju thus "How do you defend your look out circular? It's admitted fact that whenever summon issued, she has replied, she appeared before officers. How do you say that she is avoiding investigation? Because for LOC, evidence should be satisfied.""Anybody who wants to flee won't say that I am fleeing. Mere statement isn't enough. See the conduct, docs aren't given despite request. Money siphoned off in the name of COVID relief. Credit card details etc. not provided. Fake bills have been provided, prima facie there is a case of cheating. Therefore propensity to flee and not come back. Therefore we are saying explain, sit with us, give us statement and then go," Raju responded.Raju emphasised that the agency wanted to interrogate Ayyub in order for her to justify the entries and explain where they had been spent. It was the case of the agency that the money entries were not spent for COVID relief, thereby alleging that Ayyub had submitted various forged bills and siphoned off monies.At the outset, Grover...

Breaking: Delhi High Court Permits Rana Ayyub To Travel Abroad Subject To Conditions

Nupur Thapliyal

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