Immigration officials stopped Ayyub based on a Lookout Circular issued by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a case of alleged  money laundering.

NEW DELHI – Noted journalist Rana Ayyub was, on Tuesday, stopped from boarding a London bound flight at Mumbai airport by immigration authorities.

Ayyub, who happens to be a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recounted her experience in a series of her tweets. She was on way to attend a conference of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a global media watchdog, in London.

She said after the London event, she was scheduled to travel to Italy to deliver a keynote address at a journalism festival on Indian democracy.

“I was stopped today at the Indian immigration while I was about to board my flight to London to deliver my speech on the intimidation of journalists with ICFJ. I was to travel to Italy right after to deliver the keynote address at the journalism Fest on the Indian democracy,” Ayyub wrote on her Twitter handle, on Tuesday evening.

According to India Today the immigration officials stopped her  based on a Lookout Circular issued by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a case of alleged  money laundering.

She is facing an unprecedented witch-hunt by the Modi government allegedly for her stand on issues of human rights and minorities. She said hours after being stopped at the airport, she got an email from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoning her for questioning on April 1 in connection with a case of alleged misappropriation of  donations she had received to help people during Covid-19 lockdown.

“All these events… have been planned and publicised all over my social media for weeks. Yet, curiously the Enforcement directorate summon arrived in my mail much after I was stopped at the immigration. What do you fear,” asked Ayyub.