Have submitted evidence against Central agencies at PMO, says Sanjay Raut

The move from the Rajya Sabha MP comes days after he threatened to expose the nexus between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and some officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED)

Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday said that he has handed over evidence related to “misuse” of powers by the Central agencies and some officials indulging in “extortion and blackmailing” to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The Sena leader on Monday tweeted that the “game has just begun”, and added that he would soon address a press conference to share details of the allegations (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The move from the Rajya Sabha MP comes days after he threatened to expose the nexus between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and some officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The Sena leader on Monday tweeted that the “game has just begun”, and added that he would soon address a press conference to share details of the allegations.

In a tweet, he said, “Today submitted evidence to @PMOIndia of how Central Agencies r misusing powers selectively against a few. Submitted proofs on how some officials r indulge in extortion& blackmailing thru ‘Vasuli agents’. Wil address a PC very soon to share more details. Watch this space! (sic)”

On February 15, Raut had addressed a press conference at Shiv Sena headquarters in Mumbai, where he made numerous allegations against BJP leaders, financial scams in projects taken up during BJP’s regime in Maharashtra between 2014 and 2019, and a nexus between some of the party leaders and ED officials.

Alleging the involvement of some ED officials in extorting large sums of money from over 60 prominent builders in Mumbai, Raut named four people: Jitendra Navlani, Fareed Shama, Romi and Firoz Shama. “Who are these agents? They have collected around ₹300 crore from 60 builders in Mumbai. I will expose extortion and money laundering involving ED officials soon,” he said.

Raut also said that he would write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the issue. “For the last four months, extortion has been going on from 60 prominent builders in Mumbai. Some ED officials are aware of this and I have the documents. I will first write to [PM Narendra] Modi ji, Amit Shah ji, and then make the information public,” he had said.

On February 8, Raut had written to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, stating that he was approached by BJP leaders to assist them in toppling the Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in the state. He also informed Naidu about the misuse of Central agencies against political opponents.

Reacting to Raut’s allegations, BJP spokesperson Vishwas Pathak said, “This is nothing but a stunt by Sanjay Raut. If he really had any evidence, he would have gone to competent authorities rather than PMO. So, this is done just to grab people’s attention; just like he did before his much-publicised press conference where he said three and half leaders of BJP will go to jail. But it was a flopshow. Kirir Somaiya has rightly said that he (Raut) doesn’t know how to make a complaint to the ED, therefore he went to PMO.”