Patra Chawl redevelopment flat buyers protest possession delay, amid Sanjay Raut's arrest

Highlighting their plight to seek Occupation certificate (OC) of homes, several home buyers of apartments in the Patra Chawl redevelopment project in Mumbai’s Goregaon area staged a protest against the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) over the delayed possession of apartments. 

Home buyers alleged that MHADA is not permitting the developers to hand over possession. Patra Chawl is located in the Siddarth Nagar area of Goregaon, a western suburb of Mumbai. It went for redevelopment in 2008. It had over 670 tenants who were to be rehabilitated, and the housing units were spread across 47 acres.

Recently, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was arrested for his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of funds from the project.

Patra Chawl Land Scam

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in 2008 gave the contract of redeveloping Patra Chawl located in Mumbai to Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL), a subsidiary of real estate firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL). A tripartite agreement was signed between GACPL, MHADA and the tenants' society to provide flats to the people living in 672 houses, develop flats for MHADA and sell the remaining area to private builders.

The ED asserted that neither GACPL nor MHADA constructed the apartments for the tenants. Instead, for around Rs. 901.79 crore, it sold the floor space index to 9 private developers. Additionally, the company received Rs. 138 crore as a booking deposit for its Meadows housing development.

As per the central agency, Pravin Raut-who was a director of GACPL received approximately Rs.100 crore from HDIL and diverted it to accounts of his close associates, family members and business entities. The ED alleged that Rs.83 lakh which was a part of the "proceeds of crime" was transferred to Sanjay Raut's wife Varsha who purportedly used this money to buy a flat in Dadar.

Moreover, Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar allegedly purchased at least 8 plots of land at the Kihim beach at Alibaug in Maharashtra. While Pravin Raut was arrested in this case in February, the ED attached the aforesaid immovable properties worth Rs.11.15 crore on April 5. On July 1, the Shiv Sena MP was questioned by the central agency pertaining to this case for over 10 hours. 

Subsequently, on July 31, day-long raids were conducted on Sanjay Raut's residence in Mumbai's Mulund area, following which he was taken to the ED's office and arrested. He has so far failed to get bail in the case.

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