Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has got bail. He has been granted bail by the PMLA court. Sanjay Raut was arrested on August 1 in the money laundering case related to the Patra Chawl land scam. The ED had raided Raut’s hideouts on July 31 and arrested him the next day, Sanjay Raut has been in jail for 101 days. However, there is speculation that the ED will challenge this decision in the High Court.
In which case was the arrest made? Sanjay Raut was arrested in Patra Chawl land scam case. He is accused of scam of about 1034 crores. According to the ED, an agreement was signed between Maharashtra Housing Development Authority (MHADA) and Guru Ashish Construction Company by the society in 2007 for redevelopment of houses of 672 families on 47 acres of land at Patra Chawl in Siddharth Nagar in Goregaon, Mumbai western suburb. Under the agreement, Guru Ashish Construction got the task of redeveloping Patra Chawl. Under this agreement, the company had to make more than three and a half thousand flats and give them to MHADA. After that the remaining land was to be sold to private developers.
Guru Ashish Construction is a subsidiary of Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL). HDIL is under investigation by the ED and some other agencies in connection with the alleged fraud of around Rs 4,300 crore in Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank.
What did the investigation find? According to the ED, Praveen earned Rs 95 crore from the Patra Chawl scam and distributed that money to his relatives and friends. Out of this, about 83 lakh rupees had come in the account of Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut. Then the amount of Rs 55 lakh was transferred back to Madhuri Raut by Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut.