Mumbai: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Monday extended the judicial custody of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut till September 5 in the Patra Chawl land scam case. The extension came after ED argued that releasing the leader now would hamper the investigation as he is a very influential person and it is feared that he may tamper with the evidence.
ED Officials on Saturday questioned Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut for more than nine hours in connection with the case and recorded her statement. Raut a close aide of former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray denied any wrongdoing and called the ED claims ‘false’.
ED on August 1st, arrested Raut on allegations of having received proceeds of crime from the redevelopment project of Patra Chawl in Kandivali from his co-accused Pravin Raut. He was under EDs custody until 8th August and was later sent to judicial custody.
The federal probe agency initially claimed that Rs 1.06 crore were received by Raut’s family as ‘direct beneficiaries’ and later claimed that a fresh trail of another Rs 2.25 crore was traced. The money was allegedly used for buying property at Alibaug in the neighbouring Raigad district.
According to ED, 47 acres of land at the Patra Chawl belongs to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and 672 tenants were living in the tenement on the plot. The Guru Ashish Constructions obtained permission for the plot redevelopment with an additional Floor Space Index (FSI), but no actual redevelopment took place till date.