On Wednesday, the PMLA Court in Mumbai granted bail to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut in a money laundering case pertaining to Rs 1034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. The bail was granted on a surety of Rs 2 lakh.
According to the reports, Raut who is a member of the Rajya Sabha and his co-accused identified as Pravin Raut were produced before the court today. During the hearing, the Additional Solicitor General requested a temporary stay of implementation of the bail decision so that the ED could file an appeal in a higher court against the order of Mumbai’s PMLA court.
BREAKING – Special PMLA Court grants bail to MP #SanjayRaut in the Patra Chawl redevelopment scam being investigated by the #EnforcementDirectorate. #moneylaundering @dir_ed pic.twitter.com/vTPT66dwsB
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 9, 2022
“I am only asking for stay of a week. The court may grant a stay for 2-3 days also. We want to read order and procedure takes time”, the Additional Solicitor General was quoted. The Enforcement Directorate also said that it would move to the Bombay High Court against bail order of Sanjay Raut and Pravin Raut if stay was not given by the court. Sanjay Raut’s co-accused Pravin Raut has also been granted bail in the case.
As per the latest reports, the appeal by the prosecution for a stay on the bail order has been rejected.
#Breaking Special PMLA Court Rejects Stay application of @dir_ed on @rautsanjay61 bail order https://t.co/B0zmjeWNvo
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) November 9, 2022
The ED had earlier summoned the leader twice in the case failing which the officers conducted raids at his residence and questioned him in the case. As the leader failed to respond to the investigating team properly, the ED detained him for further questioning on July 31.
The case pertains to Patra Chawl in the Goregaon area of Mumbai. It is a plot of land belonging to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority popularly known as MHADA. There is a scam of about Rs 1034 crores. Properties worth 9 crore rupees of Sanjay Raut and Rs 2 crore of Raut’s wife Varsha have been seized in the case.
It is alleged that a real estate businessman named Pravin Raut, also co-accused in the case cheated people living in Patra Chawl. A construction company had got the job of constructing 3000 flats on this plot. Of these, 672 flats were to be given to those living here. The rest were to be given to MHADA, but in 2011, parts of this big plot were sold to other builders. Till now, the original residents of the chawl have not received the flats.
Notably, the crucial involvement of Pravin Raut and his company named Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited in the case appeared when the PMC Bank scam that surfaced in Maharashtra in 2020 was under investigation. It was then found that an amount of Rs 55 lakh was given to Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut from the bank account of the builder’s wife. It is alleged that Sanjay Raut had purchased a flat in Dadar using the same money. ED has now sealed that flat.
Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut had earlier claimed that a false case had been prepared against him out of political vendetta. However, the ED denied the political vendetta charge and confirmed that the leader was completely involved in the money laundering case. “The role of Sanjay Raut’s proxy and confidant Pravin Raut has been comprehensively brought out in the supplementary charge sheet filed on September 15, 2022. In order to avoid trial Sanjay Raut has been operating behind the curtains and Pravin Raut being his front man,” the agency confirmed. The court will decide on the stay of the order of Sanjay Raut and Pravin Raut at 3 pm today.
