SC dismisses Rana Ayyub challenge to Ghaziabad court summons against her in PMLA case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 7) dismissed a plea filed by journalist Rana Ayyub challenging the jurisdiction of a Ghaziabad court that commenced proceedings against her in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case.

A bench, consisting of justices V Ramasubramanian and JB Pardiwala stated in its order, "We have said under Section 3 PMLA, the place where any of the six activities are carried out is the place where offence of money laundering takes place. The question as to which is the place is a question of fact decided on evidence. We leave it open to raise this issue before trial court. We are dismissing this petition."

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Last week, the Supreme Court had reserved its order in the journalist's plea. Ayyub was summoned by a trial court in Ghaziabad in relation to a prosecution complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

On January 25, the top court had asked a special court in Ghaziabad to adjourn the proceedings in the money laundering case against Ayyub scheduled for hearing on January 27 to a date after January 31.

In her writ petition, the journalist has sought quashing of the proceedings initiated by the ED in Ghaziabad citing lack of jurisdiction as the alleged offence of money laundering occurred in Mumbai. On November 29 last year, the special PMLA court in Ghaziabad took cognisance of the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed by the ED and summoned Ayyub.

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The ED charge sheet was filed under section 45 read with section 44 of the PMLA, 2002. On October 12, 2022, the ED had filed a charge sheet against Ayyub, accusing her of cheating the public and using Rs 2.69 crore she got in charity for creating personal assets, and also violating the foreign contribution law.

In its statement, the ED said, "Rana Ayyub launched three fundraiser charity campaigns on the 'Ketto' platform, starting from April 2020 and collected funds totalling Rs 2,69,44,680."

(With inputs from PTI)

• Enforcement Directorate
• Ghaziabad
• Ghaziabad court
• PMLA case
• Rana Ayyub
• Supreme Court
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act