Supreme Court reserves verdict on plea by journalist Rana Ayyub against summons in money-laundering case

New Delhi, January 31

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a plea by journalist Rana Ayyub challenging the summons issued by a special court in Ghaziabad in the money-laundering case.

A bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice JB Pardiwala said it would pass orders on the plea.

During the hearing, advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for Ayyub, submitted, “Can her personal liberty be deprived by a procedure not authorised by law?”

She submitted that the Ghaziabad special court had no jurisdiction to try the offence as the alleged act is said to have been committed in Mumbai.

Grover said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached the journalist’s personal bank account in a bank at Navi Mumbai in which around Rs 1 crore is lying.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, said the prosecution complaint had been filed in the Ghaziabad court by the agency as part of the cause of action had arisen in Uttar Pradesh, where a lot of people, including from Ghaziabad, contributed to her crowd-funding campaign.

He said the money-laundering offence is not an independent offence and is always connected to a scheduled offence for which an FIR was lodged at Indirapuram police station of Ghaziabad.