'Baseless, Tarnishes Its Reputation': India as UN Condemns Attacks on Rana Ayyub

Permanent Mission of India in Geneva's tweet comes after UN tweeted against misogynistic attacks on the journalist.

File image of journalist Rana Ayyub.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/ Rana Ayyub)

Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, on Monday, 21 February, slammed the United Nations' (UN's) comment condemning the judicial harassment of journalist Rana Ayyub, calling it "baseless and unwarranted."

Stating that the UN's "misleading" narrative "tarnishes its reputation," the handle of Permanent Mission of India in Geneva tweeted:

"Allegations of so-called judicial harassment are baseless & unwarranted. India upholds the rule of law, but is equally clear that no one is above the law. We expect SRs to be objective and accurately informed. Advancing a misleading narrative only tarnishes UN's reputation."

The statement comes in response to a UN tweet, which had condemned the sectarian and misogynistic attacks on Washington Post columnist Ayyub:

"Relentless misogynistic and sectarian attacks online against journalist RanaAyyub must be promptly and thoroughly investigated by the Indian authorities and the judicial harassment against her brought to an end at once, stress @UN_SPExperts."

The exchange comes as Ayyub faces charges of money laundering, levelled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The case alludes to three crowdfunding campaigns initiated by the journalist between April 2020-June 2021, facilitated by the virtual platform Ketto. As per the ED, the donations were misused by Ayyub.

However, Ayyub on 11 February had refuted the allegations of misappropriation of funds, saying that “no part of the relief campaign fund remains unaccounted for and there is absolutely no scope for any remote allegation of misuse of the funds for personal expenses.”

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police on 10 February had arrested a 24-year-old man named Siddharth Shrivastav, in connection with rape and death threats he had allegedly sent to the journalist on Twitter and Instagram.

Ayyub, who faces such threats on a regular basis for her journalistic work, had informed the cyber police that over 26,000 abusive tweets were posted on her Twitter handle and other platforms in the recent past.