Patra Chawl Land scam: ED gets 4 days custody of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut

A special court on Monday granted Enforcement Directorate (ED) the custody of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut till August 4 in connection with Patra Chawl land scam case.

ED's lawyer claimed that Raut was summoned four times but he appeared before the agency only once. During this, he tried to tamper with the evidence and key witnesses, said the ED lawyer. Earlier, the ED had sought 8-day custody of Raut.

Meanwhile, Raut's lawyer, Advocate Ashok Mundargi, has called Raut's arrest a politically motivated event. "He is a patient with a heart-related ailment. He had also undergone surgery. Papers related to this have been presented before the court," said Mundargi.



Earlier on, the agency had carried out searches before summoning him to the agency’s South Mumbai office in the evening for questioning.

Sources said a team of about a dozen officers reached his residence around 7.30 am. Subsequently, Raut was summoned to the agency’s Ballard Pier office. He was placed under arrest at midnight after failing to cooperate during the probe.

In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut's wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.

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 Pvt Ltd, at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district).

These properties also include a flat in Mumbai's suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, a "close associate" of Sanjay Raut, the ED had said.