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Court remands 4 day ED custody to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut

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Posted By: Sachin Murdeshwar August 1, 2022

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Sanjay Raut late on Sunday night in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of ‘Patra chawl’ in Mumbai.

Mr Raut, 60, was arrested after he was brought to the ED’s zonal office in south Mumbai’s Ballard Estate for questioning.

He was taken into custody at 12:05 am on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was not cooperating in the probe, officials claimed.

Opposition leaders in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha protested inside and outside Parliament over his arrest, leading to repeated adjournments.

Mr Raut, alleged he was being targeted by the Centre to weaken Uddhav Thackeray’s faction. Mr Thackeray, who heads the Shiv Sena, visited Mr Raut’s residence today and met his family.

A Mumbai court today remanded Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, to four days in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody. He will be allowed to meet his lawyer and have home food and medicines during his ED custody.

The lawyer representing Enforcement Directorate (ED) said Mr Raut and his family were the beneficiaries of ₹ 1.06 crore,
Mr Raut had used the money to buy land parcels and a property in Alibaug in the name of Sapna Patkar.
In the Patra Chawl land scam case, Praveen Raut, who was the director of Guru Ashish company, had not invested any money but received ₹ 112 crore. Praveen Raut was the front-man of Sanjay Raut, he said.
Siddharth Nagar, popularly known as Patra Chawl, is located in the northern Mumbai suburb of Goregaon. It had a total of 672 houses, spread over an area of 47 acres.In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) took up the redevelopment project and gave the contract to Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL) to rehabilitate 672 tenants and to redevelop the locality. A tripartite agreement was signed between GACPL, the tenants’ society, and MHADA. It has been 14 years since then, and the people of Patra Chawl continue to wait to get their homes.

GACPL was to provide flats to 672 tenants of Patra Chawl, develop flats for MHADA, and sell the remaining area to private developers.

However, the ED claims, Pravin Raut, a close associate of Sanjay Raut, and other directors of Guru Ashish Constructions misled MHADA, and sold the floor space index (FSI) to nine private developers, collecting Rs 901.79 crore, without constructing either the rehab portion for the 672 displaced tenants or the MHADA portion. Meanwhile GACPL launched a project called Meadows, and took the booking amount of around Rs 138 crore from flat buyers. The ED has alleged that the total proceeds of the crime generated by Guru Ashish Constructions through these “illegal activities” amount to Rs 1,039.79 crore.

Sanjay Raut was summoned thrice but he appeared only once. He didn’t appear the two other times and tried to tamper with the witnesses, the lawyer alleged.
Praveen Raut had financed Sanjay Raut’s foreign trips and sent ₹ 2 lakh every month to his account during 2010-14, he said.
In its charges against Mr Raut, the agency said the money collected for the redevelopment project from 2010-2014 “were siphoned off by Rakesh Wadhwan and Sarang Wadhwan and thereby the project remained incomplete”.
Pravin Raut received Rs 100 crore from real estate company Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), and “diverted” it to various accounts of “his close associates, family member, his business entities”, including the family of Sanjay Raut.
In April, the ED attached assets worth over ₹ 11.15 crore belonging to Mr Raut’s his wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates. The attached properties are land held by Pravin Raut at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district). The assets 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 has said.

The ED has also accused him of threatening a key witness in the Alibaug land deal with rape and murder.

The woman, Swapna Patkar, has apparently filed a complaint on July 22. She claimed that the rape and murder threat was typed on a sheet of paper, which was inserted in a newspaper delivered to her on July 15, reported news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

The Sena MP has claimed that he is being framed as part of a political vendetta.

“This is nothing more than political vendetta. Since Sunday morning, freedom was taken away,” Mr Raut told reporters. Pointing out that he is a heart patient, Mr Raut said he is not even allowed to go out.-Ends.

Note- What sparked the Patra Chawl Project to seek Legal Justice:

As per the tripartite agreement signed between GACPL, the tenants’ society, and MHADA., the developer GACL had to pay rent to all 672 tenants every month till the completion of the project. However, the rent was paid only till 2014-15. As the tenants started complaining, it was also revealed around the same time that Pravin Raut and the other directors of GACL appeared to have misled MHADA and sold the FSI to nine private developers. Subsequently, GACL launched Meadows, and collected the hefty booking amount.

Due to the non-payment of rent, delay, and alleged irregularities, MHADA issued a termination notice to the developer on January 12, 2018. Against this notice, nine developers who had bought FSI from GACL, filed a suit in the Bombay High Court. The redevelopment project was stalled, leaving 672 tenants in the lurch.

In 2020, the Maharashtra government appointed a one-member committee led by Johnny Joseph, a retired chief secretary of the state, to study and recommend solutions for the rehabilitation and rental payment to 672 tenants.

Following the recommendations of the committee and feedback from MHADA, the state cabinet, in June 2021, approved redevelopment of Patra Chawl again. The government resolution was issued in July 2021.

On February 22 this year, the stalled construction work was restarted on the orders of then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. MHADA is supposed to develop the project and give possession of flats to the 672 residents. It is also supposed to immediately complete the remaining work in 306 flats in the building and hand them over to people who had won their possession in a lottery.

“MHADA itself will now be working on the entire project as a developer and will be providing 650 square feet carpet area flats to the 672 tenants through the redevelopment project,” MHADA cited in a press note.

About the Author

Sachin Murdeshwar
Sachin Murdeshwar is a Sr.Journalist and Columnist in several Mainline Newspapers and Portals.He is an ardent traveller and likes to explore destinations to the core.

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