Patra Chawl Land Scam Case: ED raids Sena’s Sanjay Raut’s residence

National

Sanjay Raut, head of Shiv Sena, is being questioned by Enforcement Directorate agents at his home as part of the Patra Chawl land fraud investigation.

Around 7 a.m. today, ED detectives arrived to Raut’s home. Sanjay Raut was called by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 28 in connection with the investigation into the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam and the prevention of money laundering. He had dared the investigation agency to arrest him after refusing to cooperate and providing the Monsoon Session of Parliament as an excuse. He eventually arrived to the ED office.

According to reports, ED, which previously detained businessman Avinash Bhosale of Pune in connection with the DHFL-Yes Bank case, wants to question Raut in this case as well. They asserted that the DHFL case and the Patra Chawl ED case are connected.

As part of this inquiry, ED temporarily seized assets belonging to Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his acquaintances in April totaling more than Rs 11.15 crore.

The assets are land that Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut’s assistant and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, owns in the towns of Palghar, Saphale, and Padgha (in Thane district).

ED said in a statement that the attached assets also include a flat owned by Varsha Raut in the Mumbai district of Dadar and eight plots at Kihim Beach in Alibaug jointly owned by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, Sujit Patkar’s wife.

Sujit Patkar is a close friend of Sanjay Raut, the ED claims. The ED had claimed Pravin Raut appeared to be “operating as a front” or working with a powerful someone after his detention in February (s).

According to the agency, it was discovered that he made payments to a number of “politically exposed people” throughout the investigation.