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ED summons Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut. Come arrest me, he responds on Twitter
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut responded to ED notice on Twitter, underlining the timing of the summons and asserted that “such tactics” were designed to stop the Sena at a time it was engaged in a “big battle”
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday summoned Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut in connection with its probe into a money laundering case over the Patra Chawl redevelopment project in Mumbai. Raut has been told to appear before ED officials on Tuesday, a senior agency official said.
The ED notice to Raut comes against the backdrop of a political tussle between the Shiv Sena and Sena’s rebel legislators led by Eknath Shinde who are camping in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Assam’s Guwahati.
Raut, who is among those fronting the battle for the survival of the Uddhav Thackeray government, said he will not back down.
“I have just learned that I am summoned by the ED. Such tactics are used to stop us while we are engaged in a big battle,” Raut tweeted minutes after ED officials confirmed the notice.
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“We are Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sainik and I will not take the Guwahati route even if my head is severed. Come arrest me. Jai Maharashtra,” Raut added, a reference to the Shiv Sena’s narrative that many of the dissident legislators in Guwahati were pressured to stand with Shinde due to fear of central agencies.
ED initiated a money-laundering probe on the basis of an FIR registered by the economic offences wing of the Mumbai police in March 2018 against Guru Ashish Constructions Pvt Ltd, Rakesh Kumar Wadhwan, Sarang Kumar Wadhwan, Pravin Raut, a former director of Guru Ashish Constructions, and others on the basis of a complaint filed by an MHADA officer.
Guru Ashish Constructions had undertaken the project for the rehabilitation of 672 tenants of Patra Chawl at Goregaon. ED claimed that apart from rehabilitating the 672 tenants, Guru Ashish Constructions was supposed to hand over certain constructed portions to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).
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The developer, however, sold the floor space index of the rehabilitation project to nine builders and collected ₹901.79 crore from them without constructing the buildings and the MHADA portions, the agency said. The developer also collected an additional amount of ₹138 crore from prospective flat buyers while launching the project at the site – thus taking the total proceeds of crime to ₹1,039.79 crore, it added.
The agency said its investigation revealed that around ₹100 crore was transferred from the real estate company, HDIL, to the accounts of Pravin Raut, who in turn diverted part of these funds to various accounts of his close associates, family members, and business entities.
“In 2010, part of these proceeds amounting to ₹83 lakh was received by Varsha Raut, directly / indirectly from Pravin Raut’s wife Madhuri,” ED said. Varsha utilised this amount for purchasing the flat at Dadar and transferred ₹55 lakh back to Madhuri after ED probe started.
The central agency’s probe also found out that during the said period, eight plots of land at Kihim beach were purchased in the name of Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar. In this land deal, apart from the registered value, cash payments were made to the sellers. On identification of these assets and other assets of Pravin Raut, they were provisionally attached as per the due process of law, ED said.
ED has therefore provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹11.15 crore, including a flat at Dadar, held by Raut’s wife Varsha and eight land parcels at Kihim near Alibag, jointly held by her with one Swapna Patkar, in the case. Swapna is the wife of Sujit Patkar, a close associate of the Sena leader.
