The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday attached Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, PTI reported. He is being investigated in the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam, ANI reported.
The central agency has reportedly attached Raut’s eight properties in Alibaug and his flat in Mumbai’s Dadar suburb.
After the Enforcement Directorate’s actions, Raut said that falsities had won.
“I’m not one to get scared, seize my property, shoot me, or send me to jail,” he told ANI. “Sanjay Raut is Balasaheb Thackeray’s follower and a Shiv Sainik, he’ll fight and expose everyone. I’m not one to stay quiet, let them [Enforcement Directorate] dance.”
Raut claimed that he had written to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu about the central agencies pressuring him.
The case
In February, the Enforcement Directorate had arrested businessman Pravin Raut for allegedly selling the floor space index of the Patra Chawl’s plot that belongs to the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority to various builders, PTI reported.
Pravin Raut, the former director of Guru Ashish Constructions – a subsidiary company of the Housing Development Infrastructure Limited – was hired to redevelop the chawl.
Housing Development Infrastructure Limited is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate for the alleged Rs 4,300-crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank fraud.
The central agency has also questioned Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut in connection with the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank fraud.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that in 2010, Rs 83 lakh earned from the bank scam were transferred to Varsha Raut from Madhuri Raut, wife of Pravin Raut, The Indian Express reported. The amount, the central agency said, was used to purchase the Dadar flat.
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