What is the Rs 1000 crore scam, in which the name of Sanjay Raut’s wife and friend has surfaced?

Mumbai, 5th April 2022: In Maharashtra, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has once again taken action against the Shiv Sena leader. ED has attached property worth crores belonging to Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and friend Praveen Raut. After this, the politics of Maharashtra has heated up.

ED says that this scam is more than one thousand crores. On the other hand, Sanjay Raut has said that he is not one to be afraid.
He said, “I am no Nirav Modi, Ambani or Adani. I live in a small house. The property was taken from hard-earned money, ED is calling it a scam.”

The Maharashtra government has constituted a special investigation team against some ED officials on charges of extortion.

ED has attached the properties of Praveen Raut, friend of Sanjay Raut. This action has been taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED was probing the Patra Chawl scam case in Goregaon, Mumbai.

What is Patra Chawl scam?
Praveen Raut is a close aide of Sanjay Raut. He is the Director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd. He was involved in the Patra Chawl Redevelopment Project. Here the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority had 47 acres of land. Here 672 tenants were given houses.

Praveen Raut was given the task of developing the Patra Chawl project to accommodate 672 tenants. Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd had undertaken the work of developing the project through a tripartite agreement between MHADA and the tenants. This is where the whole affair started.

According to the financial probe agency, Praveen Raut along with HDIL’s Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, Sarang Wadhawan and another director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd illegally sold the floor space index. Floor space index is the area in which the builder is allowed to build a flat. This area was sold to different builders for Rs 1034 crore.

The agency says that at the time of selling the land, in addition to the cost of the land, cash payment was also made. This property and other properties of Praveen Raut were ordered to be attached. Praveen Raut was arrested by the ED on February 2 as well. He is out on bail now. Today his property worth 9 crores has been attached which includes some plots and land. These are in Palghar, Safale and Padga in Maharashtra.