A special court in Mumbai sent Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to ED custody till August 4 in connection with a money laundering case related to the redevelopment of a chawl, PTI reported. The ED had sought eight-day custody of Sanjay Raut and argued before the court that the Sena MP was summoned four times but he appeared before the agency only once.
"During this, Sanjay Raut tried to tamper with the evidence and key witnesses," the ED told the court. The ED, represented by special public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar, told the court that Raut and his family were direct beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime.
Sanjay Raut's lawyer, Advocate Ashok Mundargi, said the Sena MP's arrest was politically motivated. "He is a patient with a heart-related ailment. He had also undergone surgery," he said.
Raut was arrested by the ED shortly after Sunday midnight after the agency conducted a search at his residence, during which Rs 11.5 lakh in cash was seized, PTI reported. The 60-year-old was also questioned for over six hours at the ED's zonal office in south Mumbai.
The case pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of Patra chawl, a tenement in the northern suburb of Mumbai, and related property transactions involving Raut's wife and alleged associates.
In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore belonging to his wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates.
The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin Raut, Sanjay Raut's aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd.
These assets also include a flat in Mumbai's suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, a "close associate" of Sanjay Raut, the ED had said.
What Is The Patra Chawl Scam?
In 2007, Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd (GACPL) signed an agreement with Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to provide new homes to 672 tenants of Patra chawl. As per the agreement, GACPL was also supposed to develop flats for MHADA, and sell the remaining area to private developers.
ED has claimed that GACPL didn't build a single house in Patra Chawl and instead sold the floor space index (FSI) to nine private developers for Rs 901.79 crore. At that time, Pravin Raut, Sanjay Raut's aide, was the director of Guru Ashish Construction.
Next, the GACPL launched a project named 'The Meadows' and collected Rs 138 crore as booking amount from flat buyers. Through these "illegal activities", the ED claimed that GACPL collected Rs 1,039.79 crore.
The agency said Pravin Raut received Rs 100 crore from Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), of which Guru Ashish Construction is a subsidiary, and "diverted" it to various accounts of "his close associates, family member, his business entities", including the family of Sanjay Raut.
In 2020, Raut's wife Varsha allegedly received Rs 83 lakh indirectly from Pravin Raut's wife Madhuri. She transferred Rs 55 lakh back to Madhuri later. The ED has alleged that Varsha Raut used the money to buy a flat in Dadar.
Apart from this, the ED has alleged that eight plots of land were purchased at Kihim beach at Alibaug in Maharashtra in the name of Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, a close associate of Sanjay Raut.