ED arrests director of HDIL sister concern in ₹1,034 cr fraud

ED arrested Pravin Raut, a former director of HDIL sister concern, Guruashish Constructions, in connection with ₹1,034-crore Goregaon Patra chawl land scam case on Wednesday

Mumbai. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Pravin Raut, a former director of HDIL sister concern, Guruashish Constructions, in connection with ₹1,034-crore Goregaon Patra chawl land scam case on Wednesday.

ED officials raided Raut’s house on Tuesday and took him to their office. He was arrested after he didn’t cooperate during interrogation, said an officer (HT File)

ED officials raided Raut’s house on Tuesday and took him to their office. He was arrested after he didn’t cooperate during interrogation, said an officer.

On Wednesday, he was produced before a special PMLA court. Raut’s lawyer, advocate Ajay Bhise submitted that the alleged financial irregularities were wrongly projected to the tune of ₹1,034 crore. Bhise requested the court for a short ED custody of his client. After hearing both sides, special PMLA judge S B Gurav remanded Raut to ED’s custody till February 9.

The money laundering case against Pravin Raut is based on a case of criminal conspiracy and cheating that was registered by the Mumbai Police in March 2018. ED has registered the case in September 2021.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Raut was holding 25% shares of Guruashish Constructions till March 2010 and was actively involved in various activities relating to the project.

ED’s also claimed that Raut, HDIL’s promotors Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, all directors of Guruashish had allegedly conspired together and hatched a conspiracy to fraudulently raise and siphon off money from this project without any intent to complete the project and thus leaving the 672 tenants, whose dwellings had already been demolished, in lurch, the ED alleged.

The ED also alleged that, as per the Deed of Confirmation and Modification Agreement dated November 03, 2011, entered into between society, MHADA and Guruashish, the estimated cost of construction of the whole project was ₹1,017 crore and the rehabilitation portion required to be completed first.

“As per the agreement, it was incumbent on the developers to seek the permission of MHADA for each sale. This was for the purpose of keeping an account of inflows accrued by the developer by MHADA. In order to circumvent this requirement, Raut wrote a letter in May 2011 to MHADA and sought permission to sell the sales portion of the flats without the specific permission of MHADA for each such sale. The reason for the same was given as not to create liability to MHADA and to raise funds to complete the project. However, an examination of sale documents revealed that stamp duty and registration was paid on each such transaction by the developer. There was, therefore no loss to MHADA if MHADA waiver was taken on individual sale permission. Once the conditional permission of MHADA was received for the sale of flats (with condition that OC shall be given only after the handover of Rehab component to MHADA) Guruashish sold the FSI (not flats as mentioned in the letter) to various builders and received ₹1034 crores from the builders. They also sold certain flats directly to home buyers and pocketed that money also,” ED has alleged.

The agency further claimed that Guruashish siphoned off the money and the project remains incomplete to date. “Thus the tenants, MHADA and the builders who purchased the FSI and flat buyers were all cheated by Guruashish,” the ED stated.

Raut was also arrested by the Mumbai Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) in February in connection with the Patra Chawl housing fraud case, in which Mhada is the complainant. Later, he came out on bail.

The ED has provisionally attached Pravin Raut’s properties worth ₹72 crore in a separate case of the PMC Bank fraud.