Officials from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s residence for his alleged connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case on Sunday morning, news agency ANI reported.
Mumbai | Enforcement Directorate officials at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s residence, in connection with Patra Chawl land scam case pic.twitter.com/gFYdvR89zU
— ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2022
The action follows multiple summons issued by the ED against Raut, the latest being on July 27. Raut was summoned for questioning by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the re-development of a Mumbai ‘chawl’ and related transactions involving his wife and ‘associates’.
The Rajya Sabha MP, who is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp, had denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was being targeted due to political vendetta. Raut was asked to depose at the agency’s regional office in Mumbai.
He has been questioned once in this case on July 1 and spent about 10 hours with the investigating officer during which his statement was recorded under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“I gave full cooperation and answered all their questions. I will appear again if they call me,” Raut had told reporters while exiting. He said he was “fearless and undaunted” as he has “not done anything wrong in life”.
In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.
The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut’s aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district).
These properties also include a flat in Mumbai’s suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, a “close associate” of Sanjay Raut, the ED had said.
