Maharashtra: Sanjay Raut's Dussehra will be spent in jail, bail hearing postponed till October 10

A hearing on the bail of Shiv Sena Sanjay Raut, who has been in jail for nearly two months in Mumbai's famous Patra Chawl scam, was held today. Raut stood in the dock during the hearing held in the special PMLA court. Raut's counsel presented his arguments in favor of granting bail. ED's lawyers will present their side on these on the next date.

However, the court adjourned the hearing of the case till October 10. Along with this, Raut will also remain in jail on October 5 on Dussehra. He is accused of taking bribes from builders and developers in the said scam. The ED arrested him on August 1 in a money laundering case related to this case.

Apart from being the spokesperson of the Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, Raut is a flamboyant leader of Maharashtra. He often used to put the Modi government and the BJP in the dock with his statements. During the tenure of the previous Mahagathbandhan government of Maharashtra, he used to speak. Eventually, in June, the Shiv Sena revolted under the leadership of Eknath Shinde and after the overthrow of power, he came into the dock. A case of corruption and threatening a woman leader has also been registered against him.

The special court had earlier on September 19 extended Raut's judicial custody for 14 days. Raut was arrested after a six-hour long interrogation. ED on July 31

Raut's house, close to former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, was raided.

What is the Patra Chawl scam?

In 2007, an agreement was signed by the society between Maharashtra Housing Development Authority (MHADA) and Guru Construction Company for the redevelopment of houses of 672 families on 47 acres of land at Patra Chawl in Siddharth Nagar, Goregaon, Mumbai's western suburb. Under this agreement, the company was to make more than 3500 flats and give them to MHADA. After that, the remaining land was to be sold to private developers. Rakesh Wadhawan, Sarang Wadhawan, Praveen Raut, and Guru Ashish of DHIL were the directors of this company.

It is alleged that the company misled MHADA and deposited Rs 901 crore by selling the FSI of Patra Chawl to 9 different builders. After that Rs 138 crore was collected in the name of flat booking by starting a new project called Meadows. But 672 people were not given flats. In this way, a scam of Rs 1039.79 crore took place in the Patra Chawl scam. After that in 2018, MHADA lodged an FIR against Guru Construction Company.

Sanjay Raut's connection to Patra Chawl

Praveen Raut, who was the director of Guru Construction Company, is close to Sanjay Raut. Praveen was arrested by the ED in February 2022. It is said that Praveen earned Rs 95 crore from the Patra Chawl scam and distributed that money to his relatives and friends. Out of this, 55 lakh rupees had come into the account of Sanjay Raut's wife Varsha Raut. With this amount, Raut bought a flat in Dadar. ED has already questioned Varsha Raut. Varsha had told that he had taken this money from Madhuri, wife of Praveen Raut, to buy the flat. After interrogation by ED, Varsha transferred the money to Madhuri's account.