The Enforcement Directorate detained Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in a land scam case after conducting a lengthy raid at the politician’s Mumbai residence. The action follows two summons issued against him for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged irregularities in the re-development of a Mumbai ‘chawl’ and related transactions involving his wife and ‘associates’.
“I swear by late Balasabheb Thackeray that I have nothing to do with any scam,” the Sena leader had asserted as the probe agency began its search earlier on Sunday. In a flurry of tweets, he also asserted that he won’t quit the Shiv Sena and keep on fighting amid the ED action against him.
Supporters of Raut had gathered outside his residence on Sunday morning, raising slogans against the ED and BJP. Following his detention, police personnel have been deployed outside Raut’s residence.
On June 28 this year, Raut was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Refusing to join the probe and citing the Monsoon Session of Parliament as a reason for not joining the probe, he had then dared the probe agency to arrest him. Later, he reached the ED office.
The ED, which took Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody earlier in connection with the DHFL-Yes Bank case, wants to grill Raut in this matter too, as per sources. They claim that the Patra Chawl case is also linked to the DHFL case.
In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation. The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut’s aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district).
