Money Laundering case: Sanjay Raut seeks bail, says victimized to crush opposition to ruling party

In his bail application filed before a special court on Wednesday in a money laundering case in which he is in custody, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has said that he has been victimized to forcibly crush the opposition faced by the ruling party.

Arrested on Aug 1 in a money laundering case connected to Goregaon’s Patra Chawl redevelopment project, Raut is presently in judicial custody in Arthur Road prison.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleges he had received Rs 1.06 crores from his co-accused Pravin Raut. The amount it alleges is a part of the ‘proceeds of crime’ (POC) of Rs. 112 crore that Pravin Raut received from the illegal sale of Floor Space Index (FSI) in the Goregaon redevelopment project. Pravin Raut was one of the directors of a firm that had taken up the project that never saw the light of day.

The Sena leader’s application pointed out that the same investigating agency has shown the Rs. 112 crore amount as POC in the Patra Chawl case and again in another case concerning Punjab and Maharashtra Co-Operative (PMC) Bank where too, Pravin Raut is an accused.

The plea said that while in the PMC bank case, it claims that the Rs. 112 crore is tainted money derived from the bank fraud, in the Patra Chawl case, it claims that the amount is received from the sale of FSI in the redevelopment project.

He stated that the ED cannot be allowed to show the same amount as POC in two different cases and take action against different persons for the same amount. Raut said he is only the “victim of political change of power” and thereby “abuse of criminal machinery” at the hands of the ruling party.

His plea also pointed out that the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on whose case the ED’s complaint is based, had conducted a forensic audit which showed that Pravin Raut had not received any amount from the misappropriated amount in the redevelopment project fraud.

He contended further that if the amount received by Pravin Raut is not tainted money, then the offence is not made out. In that case, even a single day of custody will be illegal and unwarranted, Raut emphasized. The special court on Thursday directed the ED to respond to Raut’s plea.