The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering probe linked to the re-development of a Mumbai chawl and other related financial transactions involving his wife and associates.
The agency has asked the Rajya Sabha member to depose before the ED’s office in south Mumbai and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The development comes in the wake of a group of Shiv Sena MLAs turning rebel against the party, putting a question mark on the future of Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government. Rebel Shiv Sena legislators, who were first taken to Surat, are now camping in Guwahati.
In April, the ED had provisionally attached assets worth over `11.15 crore of Sanjay 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).
The attached 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, the ED said in a statement.
According to the ED, Sujit is a close associate of Sanjay Raut. The agency wants to question Sanjay Raut to know about his “business and other links” with Pravin Raut and Patkar and also about the property deals involving his wife.
After arresting Pravin Raut in February, the ED had said he appears to be “acting as a front” or in collusion with some influential person(s).
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Amid MVA Govt crisis, Raut gets ED summons in money laundering case
The agency had said during the probe it was revealed he made payments to certain “politically exposed persons”.
Sanjay Raut, 60, told reporters that he will not be able to make it to the ED office on Tuesday as he has a public meeting in Alibaug. He, however, said he will cooperate with the agency. The ED may issue him a fresh date.
In the Alibaug land deal, apart from the registered value, “cash” payments were made to the sellers, the agency had alleged.
Pravin Raut was arrested by the ED in a probe linked to a Rs 1,034 crore alleged land scam related to the redevelopment of the Patra chawl in Mumbai’s Goregaon area. He is presently undergoing judicial custody.
Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd was involved in the re-development of the Patra chawl which had 672 tenants in tenements on 47 acres belonging to the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA), the ED had said earlier.