ED attaches flats and plots of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut. The agency has attached assets of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut in connection with the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. In this case, the Alibaug plot of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and one flat each in Dadar and Mumbai were attached.
Sanjay Raut, however, termed the ED’s action as an attack on the middle-class Marathi manush and said that he would not be afraid of such steps. Raut says that the ED action came on a day when the Mumbai Police had constituted the SIT to probe the allegations of extortion against the agency’s officials. Last month, Raut had alleged that some ED officials were running an extortion racket. Raut said the ED’s action was taken out of vengeance.
Raut wrote a letter to the President
Sanjay Raut wrote a letter to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu some time back, claiming that the ED probing the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam case was conspiring against him and his relatives. Sanjay Raut had alleged that the ED and other central agencies were being used with “intent” to topple democratically elected governments.
What is Patra Goregaon chawl scam
According to India Today report, Patra Chawl is located in Goregaon, Mumbai. The scam started when the government made a scheme to give flats to 672 tenants living in the chawl. For this, the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority had given the contract to HDIL’s company Guru Ashish Construction. Guru Ashish Company was to handover three thousand flats to MHDA by giving 672 flats to the tenants of the chawl.
These flats were to be built on 47 acres of land. But Guru Ashish Construction did not do so. The firm neither built flats for the people of the chawl nor gave any flat to MHDA. The company sold the land to eight other builders for Rs 1,034 crore. The directors of HDIL which did both these scams are Praveen Raut, Sarang Wadhawan, Rakesh Wadhawan.
When ED caught Praveen, Sanjay Raut’s name surfaced. Praveen is a friend of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut. Praveen’s wife had also given a loan of Rs 83 lakh to Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha, which was used by the Raut family to buy a flat in Dadar. When the investigation started, Varsha returned Rs 55 lakh to Praveen’s wife. Another accused in the case, Sujit Patkar, is also linked to Sanjay Raut. Sujit is a partner in a firm of Sanjay’s daughter. Sujit’s wife and Sanjay Raut’s wife together bought land in Alibaug. This land was also taken from scam money.