Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut sent to ED custody till August 4 in money laundering case

Mumbai, Aug 01: A special court on Monday sent Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till August 4 in connection with an alleged Rs 1,034-crore Patra Chawl land scam case.

Before this, the Rajya Sabha MP, arrested early on Monday following hours of grilling at the ED's Mumbai office, was taken to the state-run JJ Hospital for a check up.

ED arrested Raut on Sunday in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai chawl after conducting a nine-hour search at his residence, during which Rs 11.5 lakh in cash was seized, officials said.

Raut, 60, was arrested after over six hours of questioning at the ED's zonal office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate shortly after Sunday midnight.

He was taken into custody at 12:05 am on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as he was not cooperating in the probe, the officials claimed.

The Rajya Sabha MP of the Sena, led by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, will be produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai later in the day, where the ED will seek his custody.

A team of ED had on Sunday reached his residence in Mumbai's Bhandup area, where they conducted a search, questioned Raut, and by evening, took him for questioning at the agency's south Mumbai office.