A special PMLA court in Mumbai on Monday extended Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut’s judicial remand till September 5 in connection with the Rs 1,200 crore Patra Chawl land scam case. The 60-year-old Shiv Sena leader was arrested on August 1 after the Enforcement Directorate had conducted a day-long raid at Raut’s at Bhandup.
Initially, the leader was sent to ED custody and later sent to judicial remand for two weeks on August 8. Raut has been booked under several provisions of the Public Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in an alleged land re-development scam case pertaining to the Patra Chawl in Mumbai’s Goregaon. The ED had claimed several financial irregularities arising out of the re-development project, listing Raut, his wife Varsha and close associates as the key beneficiaries from the scam.
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Raut, who is close to former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, has alleged that a “false” case has been registered against him and maintained his innocence. At the time of his arrest, Raut told reporters gathered outside his residence that he will not give in to ED pressures and leave his party.
The central probe agency had raided Raut’s Bhandup residence after he had failed to depose before the ED on numerous occasions. After a day-long raid, Rs 11.5 lakh cash was recovered from his house.
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Earlier this year, the agency had attached properties of Raut’s wife Varsha and his close aides Praveen Raut and Swapna Patkar. in Alibaug and Dadar worth Rs 11.15 crore. In February, the ED had arrested Praveen Raut, a former director of the Guru Ashish Construction, the HDIL subsidiary which had got the contract from the MHADA to redevelop the slum colony in Goregaon (West) back in 2008.