Journalist Rana Ayyub's Rs 1.77 crore was frozen by the Enforcement Directorate in February
Journalist Rana Ayyub, a fierce critic of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been named in a chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate over alleged money laundering linked to funds that she collected from the public for social welfare work, including COVID-19 relief.
Ms Ayyub, who is in the US for a journalism event, tweeted "My pen can never be silenced."
"My pen can never be silenced. Ironic that I conducted a seminar yesterday, here in the US, on the attack on the free press in India. I will continue to raise my voice against the persecution of the marginalised in the country. My statement. All I have to say," Ms Ayyub said.
The Enforcement Directorate alleged Ms Ayyub ran three campaigns on the crowdfunding website Ketto in April 2020, a month after the first COVID-19 lockdown started, and collected approximately Rs 2.69 crore.
The probe agency said Ms Ayyub received money from abroad without having registered with the authority for Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, or FCRA, which acts as India's watchdog as well as a rulebook to prevent misuse of donations flowing in from outside the country.
The Enforcement Directorate, or ED, said donations were channelled into the bank accounts of Ms Ayyub's father and sister, and subsequently transferred to her personal accounts. She created a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh and sent Rs 50 lakh to a new account, the ED said, adding only Rs 29 lakh was used for social welfare work.
The ED alleged Ms Ayyub tried to project these funds as "untainted" as she had received them from the public, but her intention was to create fixed deposits and increase her own bank balance.
Ms Ayyub raised the funds looking to help slum dwellers and farmers; for relief work in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and to help people severely affected by COVID-19, the ED said.
When Ms Ayyub's assets were frozen in February this year, the ED had said they did find she had deposited a total of Rs 74.50 lakh in PM CARES Fund and the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.
Ms Ayyub - a vocal critic of the ruling BJP - has dismissed the allegations of money laundering as a "smear campaign" against her.
"It is pertinent that no foreign donations were received by me or the 2 designated bank accounts, as all the donations were received first in Ketto's bank account, who would send the amount for the relief campaign to the designated accounts in Indian currency. My instructions to Ketto were that any money received in foreign currency, should be returned to the donor, and the relief work was carried out with only domestic contributions," Ms Ayyub had said.
The money laundering case against Ms Ayyub is based on a First Information Report, or FIR, filed by Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad Police in September, by a Vikas Sankrityayan - the founder of an NGO called "Hindu IT Cell" and a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad.