Sanjay Raut: A Mumbai court granted bail to Shiv Sena leader (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackery) Sanjay Raut and his close aide Pravin Raut on Wednesday. It held their arrests illegal. The court said that Pravin Raut was “arrested for a pure civil litigation, whereas Sanjay Raut for no reason”.
Sanjay Raut and Pravin Raut were arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Sanjay remained in jail for 100 days.
Arrested illegally
In a detailed 122-page order, special judge MG Deshpande said, “I hold that both accused are basically arrested illegally. Both of them are entitled to parity in view of disparity made by the ED in not arresting the main accused persons Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawans, their company HDIL, MHADA and government officials/staff responsible for misdeeds of Wadhawans at the relevant time in 2006-2018.”
“All this clearly indicates disparity, pick and choose attitude of the ED and the court cannot put premium on the same but legally bound to make parity,” the court said.
Sanjay Raut was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Rs 1,034-crore Patra Chawl land scam case a few months ago. He walked out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail on Wednesday after the court granted him bail.
In its order, the court noted that while Pravin Raut was “arrested for a pure civil litigation, whereas Sanjay Raut for no reason”. “This truth is glaring. The court is under legal obligation and duty to find out truth even at the stage of bail,” the court said in its order.
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The court observed while the Wadhawans were allegedly involved in generating Proceeds of Crime (POC), the Rauts had “absolutely no concern in generating POC or laundering money as well as indulging the criminal activities relating to the scheduled offence, were arrested for subsequent transactions, they have made from their own money.”
Raut’s statements
The ED had mentioned the statements of Sanjay Raut attending meetings on Patra Chawl. However, the court noted that in those meetings, high-level MHADA (the housing board in Maharashtra) and government officials had also participated, “Yet, none of them is made accused or even arrested in spite of suspicious conduct of MHADA throughout right from 2007 till date. However, only Sanjay Raut was arrested skipping all officials of MHADA and government.”
The judge also noted that there was no legal necessity to arrest Sanjay Raut at midnight. “His presence could have been secured by way of summons and not by the way in which he was arrested in the late night,” the court said.
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