Eknath Shinde on Sanjay Raut's arrest: 'He must provide details of cash recovered'

In Pune, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was asked about Sanjay Raut's arrest in the Patra Chawl scam case, to which he responded: "Enforcement Directorate did not recover cash from my place." The ED recovered Rs 11.5 lakh unaccounted cash from the residence of Raut, in searches that took place between 7 am and 5 pm on Sunday, after which he was taken to the agency's office for questioning. He was taken into custody at 12:05 am under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and has been sent to ED custody till August 4. 

"He (Raut) must provide details of cash recovered from his residence," said Shinde. It is pertinent to mention here that earlier the leader of the breakaway faction of Shiv Sena had taken a dig at his former party mate asking why is he “scared” if he has not done anything wrong. 

Patra Land scam & connection with Sanjay Raut 

The present case is based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police in 2018 against Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, promoters of the real estate company Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of HDIL that undertook the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in Goregaon and its director Pravin Raut among others.

During the hearing of the case on Monday, Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegavkar, representing the ED, alleged that Pravin Raut was the 'frontman' of Sanjay Raut. Venegavkar highlighted how Praveen received around 112 crores from HDIL and transferred 1.06 crore to Rawat. The Public Prosecutor also alleged that with the money received from Pravin, Sanjay purchased 10 land parcels and 8 agreements, including a plot in Alibaug. 

Pertinently, the person who sold the land to Raut turned witness for the ED and in a statement said that the deal happened for Rs 40 lakh, of which Rs 4 lakhs was given in the form of a cheque.

Thereafter, the witness received multiple calls, from people asking to meet her. It was alleged that they were trying to convince her to give a statement to the media that 'the ED has forcefully' taken a statement from her.