Varsha Raut, wife of arrested Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, on Saturday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a 'chawl' and related transactions.
The central agency had issued summons to Varsha Raut earlier this week. Accordingly, she reached the ED office located at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai at 10.40 am. She is expected to be confronted with her husband, who is currently in ED custody, and some other accused involved in the case.
Police personnel has been deployed in large numbers outside the ED office. The central agency is conducting a probe linked to a Rs 1,034-crore alleged land scam related to the redevelopment of the Patra "chawl" in Mumbai's Goregaon area.
Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, was arrested by the ED in this case on August 1 and a local court on Thursday sent him to further custody till August 8. The ED had earlier told the court that Sanjay Raut and his family received "proceeds of crime" worth over Rs 1 crore generated out of alleged irregularities in the housing redevelopment project.
In April, the ED had provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Varsha Raut and two associates of Sanjay Raut as part of its probe. The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut's aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited, at Palghar, Saphale (a town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district). The properties also include a flat in Mumbai suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at the Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, the wife of Sujit Patkar, a "close associate" of Sanjay Raut, the ED had said.
Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited was involved in the redevelopment of the chawl, which had 672 tenants living in tenements on 47 acres belonging to the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA), the ED had said earlier.
