ED issues fresh summon to Sanjay Raut, asks him to appear before it on July 27

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued a fresh summon to Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut and asked him to attend the agency’s Mumbai office on July 27

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued a fresh summon to Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut and asked him to attend the agency’s Mumbai office on July 27. ED is probing the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Patra Chawl redevelopment project in Goregaon and financial transactions purportedly involving Raut’s wife.

New Delhi, India - Nov. 21, 2019: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut seen during the winter session at Parliament in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, November 21, 2019. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

On Tuesday, ED officials questioned Raut’s close associate Sujit Patkar and his wife Swapna Patkar in the case. ED suspects that Raut had allegedly bought land in Alibaug in Swapna Patkar’s name.

ED’s case is based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in 2018 against Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, promoters of the real estate company, Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of HDIL that undertook the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in Goregaon and its director Pravin Raut among others.

According to ED officials, a tripartite agreement was signed between the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), Guru Ashish Construction and the society formed by the tenants for the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in 2008. Under the agreement, the developer had to provide flats to rehabilitate 672 tenants as well as build a certain number of flats for MHADA before selling the remaining area, ED had said earlier.

“The probe revealed that Guru Ashish misled MHADA and collected ₹901.79 crore without constructing the rehab component buildings for 672 displaced tenants and for MHADA. Subsequently, the company launched another project, Meadows, and collected ₹138 crore from flat buyers,” the agency said.

The agency further said that its probe so far has found that around ₹100 crore were transferred from HDIL to the account of Pravin Raut, who was arrested in the case on February 2. This amount was further “diverted” by Pravin Raut, a close associate of the Sena MP, to various accounts of his associates, family members, his business entities etc., ED said.

“In 2010, part of the proceeds of crime, ₹83 lakh, was received by Varsha Raut, wife of Sanjay Raut, directly/indirectly from Madhuri Raut, wife of Pravin Raut,” ED said in a statement earlier. “This amount was utilised by Varsha Raut for purchase of flat at Dadar East,” the agency claimed.

Besides, eight plots of land at Kihim beach in Alibaug were purchased in the name of Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar who is another close associate of Sanjay Raut, ED said.

As part of its probe, in April, ED attached properties worth ₹11.15 crore belonging to Varsha Raut, including the flat in Dadar and plots in Kihim, officials said. ED has also attached Pravin Raut’s immovable assets worth ₹72.6 crore in connection with the PMC bank fraud case in December 2022.