Journalist Rana Ayyub was on Tuesday stopped by authorities at the Mumbai international airport from flying abroad in the wake of a 'look out circular' issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against her, officials said.

The federal probe agency wants to question and record Ayyub's statement in a money laundering case against her.

The 37-year-old scribe reached the Mumbai international airport to board a flight to London but was stopped by immigration authorities. Soon after, an ED team questioned her at the airport and asked her to join the investigation, they said.

She is understood to have been asked to depose before the agency at its office here on April 1.

Officials said the ED had first issued summons to her after the agency early this year provisionally attached over Rs 1.77 crore in bank deposits in connection with the case against her linked to alleged irregularities in charitable funds raised by her from public donors for COVID-19 relief work during 2020-2021.

However, they said, she skipped the notice and the agency did not want her to leave the country as it could lead to a delay in the probe and the subsequent filing of a charge sheet in court.

Ayyub posted about the incident on her Twitter handle.