New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate filed a chargesheet against journalist Rana Ayyub under money laundering charges before a Ghaziabad court on Thursday.

In order to claim more expenses towards relief work, fake bills were submitted by Rana Ayyub

The probe agency ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the UP Police in 2021. Rana Ayyub has been accused of illegally acquiring funds from the public in the name of charity.

The ED has alleged that Rana Ayyub had started three campaigns and raised crores via Ketto, an online crowdfunding platform. The three campaigns, according to probe officials, include funds for slum dwellers and farmers (during April- May 2020), relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra (during June- Sept 2020) and help for Covid-19 impacted people in India (during May-June 2021).

Rana Ayyub received donations worth Rs 2.69 crore through three campaigns out of which Rs 80.49 lakh was received in foreign currency. The foreign donations were later returned by Rana Ayyub as the Income Tax department initiated an investigation for allegedly violating the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA).

According to ED, funds raised on the online platforms were received in the accounts of her father and sister and subsequently transferred to her personal accounts. Further, she only utilised the funds to create a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh for herself and transferred another Rs 50 lakh to a new bank account. Only Rs 29 lakh was used for relief works.

“In order to claim more expenses towards relief work, fake bills were submitted by Rana Ayyub,” the ED said.

“Rana Ayyub has tried to project these funds as untainted and thus has laundered the funds received from general public. Rana Ayyub also received these funds from foreign countries without any approval or registration from the government which is required under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010,” the ED said in its chargesheet.

“ED Investigation has established that Rana Ayyub had launched the aforesaid campaigns with the sole intention to cheat the general public and acquired Proceeds of Crime in the form of FD and balances in bank accounts projecting them as untainted,” the ED chargesheet said.