Explained: the land scam case in which ED has arrested Sanjay Raut

After over 9 hours of searching at his home, the Enforcement Directorate on Sunday arrested Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut at midnight. The case in which Raut has been arrested is linked to alleged money laundering in the redevelopment of a chawl project in a northern suburb of Mumbai.

Let's take a deeper look into the case the ED wants to question the Sena MP about.

The case pertains to Siddharth Nagar locality, also known as Patra Chawl popularly, which lies in the northern Mumbai suburb of Goregaon. The locality which is spread over 47 acres had 672 houses.

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) took up the redevelopment project of the locality and gave the contract to Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL) in 2008.

One of the directors of GACPL, Pravin Raut is a close aide of Sanjay Raut as per ED claims.

According to the investigative agency, the GACPL, tenants’ society and MHADA had signed a deal that the developer would provide 672 houses for the tenants and develop flats for MHADA. The remaining area was to be sold by the developer.

14 years since then, the people of the area are stilL waitING for their homes.

The ED claims Pravin Raut sold floor space index (FSI) to nine private developers, for Rs 901.79 crore, without constructing either the rehab portion for the 672 displaced tenants, or the MHADA portion.

Also watch: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut arrested by ED in land scam

Moreover, GACPL launched another project called Meadows, for which it took the booking amount of around Rs 138 crore from flat buyers.

A total of Rs 1,039.79 crore is what the ED has alleged as the total proceeds generated by GACPL.

Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut has also been named in the case. The ED has alleged that in 2010, Rs 83 lakh, which was part of the sales proceeds, were used by her to buy a flat in Dadar.

Apart from this, ED also alleged that at least eight plots of land were purchased at Kihim beach at Alibaug in Maharashtra in the name of Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar.