Big News: ED arrests Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in Patra Chawl land scam
By Banaja Routray
Mumbai, Aug. 1: In a late night move on Sunday, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut after over six hours of questioning in the Patra Chawl land scam case.
Raut, 60, alleged that he was being targeted by the Centre to weaken the Shiv Sena.
Shiv Sena chief and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said immediately reacted to Raut’s arrest and said it was attempt to divide the Hindus.
Reports said the ED officials searched Raut’s Mumbai home for the most part of Sunday after he refused to appear for questioning despite being summoned twice.
Raut will be produced before the court today.
Let’s know what the Patra Chawl scam.
In 2008, Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority started a housing project at Siddharth Nagar. It is located in Goregaon, North Mumbai. It is popularly known as Patra Chawl. There are 672 houses in the area spread across 47 acres. The MHADA started the redevelopment project and awarded the contract to rehabilitate 672 tenants and redevelop the area to Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd (GACPL).
As per the tripartite agreement, GACPL was to give flats to 672 tenants of Patra Chawl, 3,000 flats for MHADA, and sell the rest to private developers.
However, the ED claims that Sanjay Raut’s close aide Praveen Raut and other directors of Guru Ashish Construction misled MHADA and earned Rs 901.79 crore by selling Floor Space Index, i.e., FSI to 9 different private developers. They neither gave flats to 672 tenants nor built any flats for MHADA.
After this GACPL started a project called Meadows and took booking amount of about Rs 138 crore from flat buyers. The ED alleges that Guru Ashish Construction made Rs 1,039.79 crore from these illegal activities.
The ED has claimed that Praveen Raut received Rs 100 crore from real estate company Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL). Praveen gave this money to his close associates, family members, and Sanjay Raut’s family.
Sanajya Raut has categorically denied the ED charge.
