SC agrees to hear plea of Rana Ayyub against summons in money laundering case

The Supreme Court is set to hear Rana Ayyub’s petition next week against the summons issued to her by a Ghaziabad court in a PMLA case. However, the court listed it for January 23.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to hear the journalist Rana Ayyub's plea contesting the summons that had been issued to her by a special PMLA court in Ghaziabad in connection with a money laundering case brought by the Enforcement Directorate.

The case will be heard on January 23 by a bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha after Ayyub's attorney Vrinda Grover requested an urgent listing in court. Grover claimed that Ayyub has received a summons from the special court in Ghaziabad for January 27, thus the matter has to be listed promptly.

Ayyub has asked for the proceedings started by the ED in Ghaziabad to be dismissed in her writ suit on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction because the alleged money laundering offence took place in Mumbai.

The journalist was the subject of a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate to the Ghaziabad court in October of last year over suspected irregularities in the fund-raising for Covid relief. Ayyub's assets, worth more than Rs 1.77 crore, had already been sequestered by the federal agency.

Since she was named in a FIR in 2021 for allegedly soliciting money for charity but using it herself.  A summons from the ED prevented the journalist from departing for London in March of last year. The journalist had raised money for three relief campaigns on Ketto since early 2020 for those affected by Covid, floods and the migrant crisis caused by the Covid lockdown.

(With PTI inputs)