Supreme Court re-fixes Rana Ayyub's plea against summons in PMLA case to January 25

The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear on January 25 a plea by journalist Rana Ayyub against the summons issued to her by the Ghaziabad Court in a PMLA case related to misuse of funds for Covid-19 victims.

Advocate Vrinda Grover mentioned the matter before the Supreme Court's bench presided over by Chief Justice D Y Chadrachud.

She said the bench which was scheduled to take up the matter on January 23 was not sitting. She said there is an urgency since the scribe has been asked to appear before the court on January 27.

The top court said it would hear the plea on January 25.

A bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and J B Pardiwala was scheduled to hear Ayyub's plea but both the judges sat in a bench led by the CJI.

According to the investigators, Ayyub had launched the fund-raising campaigns with the sole intention of cheating the general public and acquiring proceeds of crime in the form of fixed deposits and balances in bank accounts projecting them as untainted.

The ED had initiated its probe after an FIR was registered in September 2021 by the Indirapuram Police Station in Ghaziabad under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Amendment Act and Black Money Act against Ayyub.

The investigators claimed she collected Rs 2.69 crore but used just Rs 29 lakh for relief works and utilised a huge chunk for making fixed deposits.