Raut granted bail, court calls Chawl case arrest "ILLegaL" and "witch-hunt"

Raut granted bail, court calls Chawl case arrest "ILLegaL" and  "Witch-Hunt"

After three months of incarceration,  Shiv Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut walked out of the jail on Wednesday evening, after a special court granted him a bail in a money  laundering case linked to alleged `1,034 crore Patra Chawl redevelopment scam.

While pronouncing an order that he had reserved on November 2,  Special judge MG Deshpande said Raut’s arrest in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was “illegal” and a “witch-hunt”. The court also granted bail to Pravin Raut, a co-accused in the case.

On his part, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought stay on the effect of the order for a week in order to challenge in appeal before the High Court. Raut’s Senior counsel Abad Ponda appearing for Pravin opposed the stay calling it a question of personal liberty

The Special Judge turned down ED’s request.

Later, in what came as an additional relief to Raut, the Bombay High Court refused to suspend the bail order granting him bail in the money laundering case.

Not losing time, Raut’s legal team dropped the special court’s order granting him bail into the Arthur Road jail box and completed the bail formalities and at about 6.55 pm, the Sena leader stepped out of the Arthur Road Jail where he had been lodged for more than three months.

Raut and Pravin are being investigated in a money laundering case linked to the 2018 crore Patra Chawl redevelopment scam.

Raut was arrested by the ED on August 1 under sub-section (1) of section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The PMLA court had earlier remanded Raut in ED custody till August 4. 

After the ED mentioned the matter before her,  Justice Bharati Dangre who agreed to list it tomorrow but refused to suspend the bail order.

The Judge noted that she cannot pass sweeping orders under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as requested by ED when the plea filed by the agency was one under Section 439(2) of CrPC. She said that she would hear the matter on Thursday.

 

The ED’s allegation is that in 2010, a part of the proceeds of crime of Rs 83 lakh was transferred to Varsha Raut from Madhuri Raut, wife of Pravin Raut. “This amount was utilized by Varsha Raut for purchase of a flat at Dadar. It is also revealed that after initiation of ED investigation, the amount of Rs 55 lakh was transferred by Varsha Raut to Madhuri Raut,” the ED has said.

The ED’s another allegation is that eight plots of land at Kihim beach at Alibaug were also purchased in the name of Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, a close associate of Sanjay Raut.

(Source : The Pioneer)