Trouble for Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut escalated when the Enforcement Directorate conducted mega raids at his ‘Maitri’ residence in Bhandup, Mumbai in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case.
A team of 12 Enforcement Directorate officials reached Sanjay Raut’s house around 7 am to conduct a search. According to sources, the agency officials are questioning the Shiv Sena leader in the money laundering case.
The raids took place on a day when the Shiv Sena MP waived two summons issued by the agency probing the PMLA case related to the alleged Patra Chawl land scam. On Wednesday, Raut had applied for the exemption citing the campaign for the upcoming Vice Presidential election.
The summons issued to the Shiv Sena leader was in connection with the Rs 1,034-crore land scam related to the redevelopment of the chawl and transactions involving his wife and other associates. While businessman Praveen Raut was arrested in February in this case, the ED attached 8 land in Alibaug and a flat of Sanjay Raut in Dadar, Mumbai on April 5.
The Shiv Sena leader has denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he is being targeted for political vendetta. Raut is a loyalist of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who was recently ousted from the post following rebellion and split in the party. The Rajya Sabha MP was questioned in this matter on July 1. He spent around 10 hours with the investigating officer during which his statement was recorded under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In April, the ED had provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of their associates as part of its probe. The attached properties are in the form of land in Palghar, Safal (a town of Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district) with Praveen M Raut, associate of Sanjay Raut and former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd.
The properties include a flat in Mumbai suburb Dadar near Varsha Raut and eight plots on Kihim beach in Alibaug, jointly owned by Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, a “close associate” of Varsha Raut and Sanjay Raut. The agency wants to question Sanjay Raut to know about his “business and other relations” with Praveen Raut and Patkar, as well as property deals involving his wife.