Sanjay Raut gets bail in Mumbai’s Patra Chawl case, what is he accused of?

A special PMLA court on Wednesday gave bail to Sanjay Raut, a senior leader of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) faction, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case of alleged money laundering related to the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in the northern suburbs of Mumbai.

Special PMLA judge M G Deshpande also gave bail to Raut’s alleged aide, Pravin Raut. Raut has been lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail since August 1.

What is the Patra Chawl redevelopment project?

Patra Chawl is the popular name for Siddharth Nagar, located in the northern Mumbai suburb of Goregaon. It had a total of 672 houses, spread over an area of 47 acres.

In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) took up the redevelopment project and gave the contract to Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL) to rehabilitate 672 tenants and redevelop the locality.

A tripartite agreement was signed between GACPL, the tenants’ society, and MHADA. It has been 14 years since then, and the people of Patra Chawl continue to wait to get their homes.

So where does Sanjay Raut come in?

Subsequently, GACPL launched a project called Meadows and took the booking amount of around Rs 138 crore from flat buyers. The ED has alleged that the total proceeds of the crime generated by Guru Ashish Constructions through these “illegal activities” amount to Rs 1,039.79 crore.