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Why Sena’s Sanjay Raut was arrested, according to ED officials
Sanjay Raut has been arrested in the Patra Chawl case. He had skipped ED summons twice earlier.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was arrested on Sunday midnight after nine-hour long raids at his Mumbai home, followed by questioning at the Enforcement Directorate office.
The 60-year-old leader’s arrest is linked to the Patra Chawl case and also involves his wife. As per the officials in the ED, Sanjay Raut was arrested due to “non-cooperation'', “unaccounted cash recovered at his residence”, and recovery of “incriminating documents” from his place.
The probe agency officials on Sunday had said that unaccounted cash worth ₹11.5 lakh was recovered from Raut’s residence. He will be produced at a special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court on Monday. His brother, however, claimed the cash was collected for Ayodhya tour. "BJP is afraid of him and got him arrested. They haven't given us any document (regarding his arrest). He has been framed."
"The amount found in the house is of Eknath Shinde (the Maharashtra chief minister). It was a party fund for the Ayodhya trip," Sunil Raut, who is a Sena MLA, said. Sanjay Raut has been a vehement critic of the BJP ever since the Sena and the BJP snapped decades-old ties.
The Rajya Sabha MP had skipped the ED summons twice in the Patra Chawl case. This happened as Team Uddhav Thackeray was grappling with the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra after Eknath Shinde stitched alliance with the BJP, along with the support of a majority of party MLAs. Team Uddhav and Team Shinde are now facing each other in the Supreme Court.
On Sunday, as his home was raided, Raut had invoked Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, underlining that he had nothing to do with the case. He also said he won’t quit Sena.
A large number of demonstrators - agitating against the ED action on him - had gathered outside his home also.
