MUMBAI, AUG 1 (UNI) A special court here on Monday sent Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for 3 days, till Thursday, in a money laundering case arising out of the Patra Chawl land scam. Special PMLA court judge M.G. Deshpande pronounced the order as Raut was produced before it, hours after he was arrested by the ED here early this morning.
While ED’s special counsel Hiten Venegaonkar sought 8 days of custody, Raut’s lawyer, senior counsel Ashok Mundargi opposed it on various grounds including the health problems of his client who was a cardiac patient. Venegaonkar argued that Raut was not cooperating with the investigations and hence his custodial interrogation was necessary and the agency wanted to probe other aspects of the Patra Chawl scam and related issues. He contended that coaccused Pravin Raut was merely a frontman and all deals pertaining to the Patra Chawl scam were perpetrated by Sanjay Raut. Opposing the ED’s contentions, Mundargi said that Raut’s arrest was politically motivated and pleaded for minimum custody for his client. “He is a patient, suffering from heart-related issues and has undergone surgery, and all medical papers pertaining to this have been submitted to the court,” he said.
