A day after Uddhav Thackeray quit as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday said that he would join the investigation of Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a prevention of money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam.
Raut was sent a second summon on Wednesday after which he decided to join the probe on Friday (July 1).
On Monday, he didn’t join the probe and skipped questioning. He had said he wouldn’t join the investigation and had dared the anti-money laundering agency to arrest him. But now he has said that he would get his statement recorded before the ED.
The ED on Monday had taken Pune businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody in the DHFL Yes Bank case. Sources had claimed that they wanted to grill Raut in this matter too. Sources also claimed that the Patra Chawl case of the ED was also linked to DHFL case.
Soon after receiving the summon, Raut took to Twitter to allege that he was being victimised on the instructions of the Centre.
In April, the ED had attached property linked to Raut in connection with the land scam.
A property worth Rs 9 crore of Raut’s associate Pravin Raut and assets worth Rs 2 crore belonging to Varsha Raut, the wife of Sanjay Raut, were attached by the ED.
Pravin had eight parcels of land in Alibaug and a flat registered in the name of Varsha Raut which were attached. The ED had arrested Pravin in this connection.
“We had filed a charge sheet in the matter against Pravin, Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhawan of HDIL and Guru Ashish Construction and others were named as accused in the charge sheet,” said an ED official.
During the probe, the ED came to know that Pravin allegedly paid Rs 55 lakh to Varsha. This was paid from the bank account of Pravin’s wife. The money was termed as proceeds of crime by the ED.
It was also alleged that the travel expenses of Sanjay Raut were borne by Pravin which included his hotel stay and air tickets.