On Sunday morning Enforcement Directorate officials reached at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut's residence at 7 am, in connection with Patra Chawl land scam case. Currently, the ED is conducting a search and questioning Raut.
The Shiv Sena leader was summoned by the probe agency on July 27 after he skipped an earlier summon citing the ongoing Parliament session in Delhi.
At 7 am, the probe agency team, accompanied by CISF officials, reached the Shiv Sena leader's home in Bandup in eastern suburbs of Mumbai and began the searches.
Along with the ED officials, CISF officials are also present.
Raut had earlier appeared before ED in connnection with the same case. However, he had skipped the summons recently citing ongoing parliamentary sessions.
Following the raids Raut in a series of tweets claimed that, "Maharashtra and Shiv Sena will continue to fight." He also tweeted "...False action, false evidence...I will not leave Shiv Sena...Even if I die, I will not surrender...I have nothing to do with any scam."
Shiv Sena workers have started gathering around Raut's house.
Previous Summons
On June 28 this year, Sanjay Raut was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Refusing to join the probe and citing the Monsoon Session of Parliament as a reason for not joining the probe, he had then dared the probe agency to arrest him. Later, he reached the ED office.
The ED, which took Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody earlier in connection with DHFL-Yes Bank case, wants to grill Raut in this matter too, as per sources. They claimed that Patra Chawl case of ED is also linked to the DHFL case.
In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut's wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.
The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut's aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district).
The attached properties also include a flat in Mumbai's suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, the ED said in a statement.
According to the ED, Sujit Patkar is a close associate of Sanjay Raut. After arresting Pravin Raut in February, the ED had said he appears to be "acting as a front" or in collusion with some influential person(s).
The agency had said during the probe it was revealed he made payments to certain "politically exposed persons".
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