Trouble has mounted for Sanjay Raut as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved to the Bombay High Court seeking the cancellation of bail granted to him in a money laundering case related to the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl.
Notably, Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, was arrested on July 31 due to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl and related property transactions involving his wife and alleged associates. However, earlier in November, the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena leader was granted bail by a special court in Mumbai. Opposing Sanjay Raut’s bail, the ED moved the Bombay High Court for an urgent hearing on the application seeking cancellation of his bail.
It is pertinent to mention that the central agency, opposing Raut’s bail, had said that the Rajya Sabha member played a major role in the money laundering case related to the Patra Chawl redevelopment and acted “behind the curtains” in the case to avoid the money trail.
Earlier, ED in the supplementary chargesheet in the case mentioned that as per the evidence, the involvement of Uddhav-led Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was alleged in siphoning off the proceeds of crime (POC) in the case. These pertained to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Siddharth Nagar property, popularly known as Patra Chawl, an area located in Mumbai’s Goregaon.
Patra Chawl land scam
In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) gave the contract for redeveloping Patra Chawl to Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL), a subsidiary of real estate firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL).
Following this, a tripartite agreement was signed between the GACPL, MHADA and the tenants’ of the society to provide flats to the people living in 672 houses, develop flats for MHADA and sell the remaining area to private builders. However, the ED claimed that GACPL neither constructed the flats for the tenants nor for the MHADA.
It was later revealed that GASCPL sold the floor space index to nine private developers for about Rs 901.79 crore. Moreover, the firm also collected Rs 138 crore as the booking amount for its housing project called Meadows. According to ED, the director of GACPL Pravin Raut received approximately Rs 100 crore from HDIL and diverted it to accounts of his close associates, family members, and business entities. Notably, Rs 83 lakh which was a part of the “proceeds of crime” was transferred to Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha who purportedly used this money to buy a flat in Dadar.
ED has moved the Bombay High Court seeking the cancellation of bail granted to Sanjay Raut in a money laundering case related to Patra Chawl redevelopment.
