Hospitals don’t always evoke nice images: Think of sickness, diagnostics, physiotherapy and surgeries. Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said that it has summoned Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut in the Patra Chawl land case. The summons have been sent to her after transactions done on Varsha Raut’s account in the money laundering case came to light, the investigating agency said. Meanwhile, earlier in the day, a special court here extended Raut’s ED custody till August 8..
On Sunday midnight, the central agency arrested Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of Patra ‘Chawl’ (old row tenement) in suburban Goregaon. Before arresting him, the ED had questioned him for over six hours at the ED’s zonal office in south Mumbai’s Ballard Estate.
The ED sleuths reached his house at around 7 am on Sunday and conducted searches. They seized ₹11.50 lakh unaccounted cash during a raid from the Mumbai residence of Sanjay Raut in a land scam case.
On Monday, the court had remanded him in the ED custody till August 4.
Soon after the ED officials detained him in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case, Sanjay Raut came out of his residence and waved to his supporters who had gathered outside his house. He said that “he won’t be cowed down”.
“False charges and documents are being framed against people. All of this is being done to weaken Shiv Sena and Maharashtra. Sanjay Raut won’t be cowed down. I will not leave the party,” Raut told media persons.
At the end of his initial remand, the probe agency produced Raut before special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court judge M G Deshpande. It sought extension of his custody for further probe into the matter. After hearing both the sides, the court extended the custody till August 8.
The ED had earlier told the court that Raut and his family received “proceeds of crime” worth over ₹one crore generated out of alleged irregularities in the housing redevelopment project.
Earlier on June 28, he was summoned by the law enforcement agency in connection to the case.
The 60-year-old Rajya Sabha member is a close aide of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. After his arrest, Thackeray had visited his family at his residence.
