A special court in Mumbai on Monday further extended the judicial custody of Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut by another 14 days in a 2018 ‘chawl’ redevelopment case related to irregularities.
Mr. Raut, 60, is currently lodged at the Arthur Road Jail and filed for bail on September 7 contending that the allegations against him were a perfect example of “abuse of power” and “political vendetta”. The bail plea will be heard on September 21.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed its supplementary charge sheet against him on September 16. Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act judge M.G. Deshpande took cognizance of it on Monday.
The chargesheet says, “Mr. Raut has played a major role in the offence through his proxy and confidant Pravin Raut. The accused was fully involved in the offence of money laundering through Pravin Raut who was the director of Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited which was engaged for redevelopment of Patra chawl.”
“The Shiv Sena is accused of utilising proceeds of crime amounting to ₹3, 27, 85, 475 in creating assets apart from spending the money on pleasure trips and other expenses,” the ED alleges.
After being questioned for nine hours on June 28, Mr. Raut was arrested on August 1 by the ED on allegations of money laundering and irregularities pertaining to the redevelopment of the Patra ‘chawl’ in Mumbai’s Goregaon. It is alleged by the ED that the developers, one of them is a close associate of Mr. Raut, fraudulently made ₹1,039.79 crore from this scheme and Mr. Raut also benefited from the same. On August 8, Mr. Raut was sent to judicial custody. The ED earlier attached assets belonging to Mr. Raut and questioned his wife Varsha in the case.
