There’s no relief for Uddhav Thackeray’s top man as Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s judicial custody was extended till October 10 in the Patra Chawl land scam case. Notably, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the Rajya Sabha member on August 1 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in suburban Goregaon. The investigation agency has also filed a supplementary chargesheet in connection with the case naming Sanjay Raut as an accused.
The ED probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of Patra Chawl and related property transactions involving his wife and alleged associates.
Evidences suggest Sanjay Raut’s involvement, claims ED
According to news agency PTI, the ED in its supplementary chargesheet in the case informed that new evidences suggest the involvement of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in siphoning off the proceeds of crime (POC) in the case pertaining to alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of Siddharth Nagar, popularly known as Patra Chawl, an area located in Mumbai’s Goregaon.
The ED has also claimed that Raut, along with other officials, was associated with the redevelopment of Patra Chawl. It was also informed that the Shiv Sena leader and close aide Uddhav Thackeray was also present at a meeting called by the then-Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 2007 to discuss the financial implication of the multi-crore housing project in suburban Mumbai.
Patra Chawl land scam
Earlier in 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) gave the contract of 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 instead 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.
