A special court in Mumbai has termed the arrest of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut by the ED as an act of targeting in the money laundering case related to Patra Chawl redevelopment. Raut was in jail for nearly three months after his arrest by the ED on August 1.
Mumbai: A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday termed the arrest of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to Patra Chawl redevelopment as “illegal” and “targeting” and granted his bail.
It also questioned why the main accused in the case and real estate firm HDIL’s Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan were never arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The judge also said, “Not only this, the reason for not arresting the concerned officials of MHADA and other government departments by the agency was nothing but a message to the then Union Agriculture Minister and the then Chief Minister (of Maharashtra),” So that a fear can be created in his mind that he is the next person in this queue.
“It is an astonishingly acknowledged fact that the prime accused Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan of HDIL were never arrested by the ED even though they had earned more than Rs 1,000 crore,” the judge said.
Special Judge MG Deshpande for cases related to Prevention of Money Laundering Act granted bail to Sanjay Raut and his aide Praveen Raut. “However, in view of his major role in the present case, the ED has not arrested him, the reason for which only ED can better explain,” the judge said.
The court said that the Wadhawans have also accepted their role. “Basically there was no reason to arrest the two under Section 19 of the PMLA for the charges and it is nothing but a civil dispute,” the court said.
Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) empowers the concerned government officials to arrest any person.
The judge said the Wadhawans and their firm HDIL had categorically admitted that the delay was due to their malpractices and that the High Court had also accepted this and the ED had ignored all this.
The court said that Sanjay Raut had sought time to appear before the ED, but this cannot be a reason to arrest him.
According to the report, Raut, who was arrested on August 1, came out of jail a few hours after the order. His aide Praveen Raut, who was arrested in February 2022, was also granted bail.
“Therefore, I am of the firm view that the arrest of both the accused without the qualifications required under the provisions of the PML Act is fundamentally illegal,” the judge said. In view of the disparity made by the ED in not arresting the main accused Rakesh and Sarang, both of them deserve equality.
The judge also slammed the ED, saying that it arrests accused persons with extraordinary speed, but when it comes to investigation, ‘not even the speed of a snail’ is shown.
Sanjay Raut came out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail on Wednesday evening, hours after he was granted bail by a special court in a money laundering case. At around 5 pm, Raut’s lawyers sent the bail order to Arthur Jail Road and at around 6.50 pm, Raut came out of the jail.
what was the matter
It is known that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Sanjay Raut (60) on August 1 in a money laundering case related to a housing project in suburban Goregaon.
The ED was probing Sanjay Raut, his wife and other associates in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in transactions related to the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in Mumbai.
In April last, the ED had temporarily attached properties worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates in connection with the probe.
The attached properties are in the form of land in Palghar, Safale (a town in Palghar) and Padgha (Thane district) held by Praveen M. Raut, an associate of Sanjay Raut and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd.
The ED had said that these properties include a flat in Dadar suburb of Mumbai near Varsha Raut and also eight plots at Kihim Beach in Alibaug, jointly owned by Varsha Raut and Sanjay Raut’s ‘close associate’ Sujit Patkar’s wife Swapna. Patkar’s.
According to the report, in 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, a government agency, awarded a redevelopment contract for the chawl to Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd (GACPL), a subsidiary of HDIL.
GACPL was to construct 672 flats for the tenants and some flats were to be given to MHADA also. The rest of the land was free to sell to private developers.
But the tenants did not get a single flat in the last 14 years as the company did not redevelop Patra Chawl and sold land parcels and Floor Space Index (FSI) to other builders for Rs 1,034 crore, according to the ED.
According to the Indian Express, the ED claims that Sanjay Raut’s aide Praveen Raut and other GACPL directors were involved in the process. It is claimed that Praveen Raut received Rs 100 crore from HDIL and diverted it to various accounts of his close associates, family members, his business entities, including Sanjay Raut’s family.
The agency claimed that in 2010, Rs 83 lakh from the proceeds of the crime was transferred to Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut, who used the money to buy a flat in Dadar.
Raut and the Shiv Sena’s Thackeray faction have long considered the case baseless and accused the ED of carrying out political vendetta by the BJP.
After release, Sanjay Raut said- my arrest will be the biggest mistake of his political career
According to the Indian Express, Sanjay Raut was released from jail at around 6.50 pm. Standing in front of the jail, Raut reaffirmed his commitment to the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray and said he would continue to take on those in power.
Raut, who was released on bail after 100 days behind bars, was received by Shiv Sena activists who had gathered outside the Arthur Road jail, as well as outside his residence in Bhandup.
After coming out of jail, Raut said, ‘I am happy after coming out. We are warriors and will continue to fight. I have spent my whole life in Shiv Sena. I will live with the army and die with the army, but I will not leave the army and go anywhere. I would rather die but will never leave the army.
Hours after his release at his residence in Bhandup, Raut said that he will now fight with full force against the opposition and will not stop.
He said, ‘My family members did not cry when I was arrested, but today, when I was released, they cried. But now is not the time to cry, it is time to fight. I am free now, so I will not stop and fight (against the opposition) with all my might. Now we have to fight with all our might.
Raut said, ‘They had arrested me from here… While leaving the house, I told them that I would prefer death but I would neither bow down nor surrender in front of Delhi.’
He said, ‘They don’t know how big a mistake they have made by arresting me. This would be the biggest mistake of his political career. They will soon know. Every moment of my life is dedicated to the army. Today, the court said the arrest was illegal. Arrest me as many times as you want but I will not leave Shiv Sena.
The leader of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) as well as its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Congress and NCP welcomed his release.
Shiv Sena-UBT MLA Aaditya Thackeray said, ‘The cannon is back on the battlefield and the lion of Shiv Sena is back. He is a Shiv Sainik loyal to Balasaheb Thackeray… Even after using so much pressure technique against him, he never betrayed anyone or changed sides under pressure. He is not a coward like others who run away under pressure.
(with input from news agency language)
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