New Delhi: The ED said on Friday it has attached assets worth 72 million rupees from a Maharashtra-based man whose alleged transaction with the wife of Shiv Sena leader, Sanjay Raut, is under its scanner in the money laundering case of PMC Bank of more than Rs 4.3 billion.
The central investigative agency alleged that the man, Pravin Raut, had “diverted” Rs 95 crore of funds from the bank affected by the scam in the form of a loan, of which he paid Rs 1.6 crore to his wife, Madhuri Raut. who subsequently transferred Rs 55 lakh in two installments to Varsha Raut, wife of Sanjay Raut, as an “interest-free loan”.
The ED recently summoned Varsha Raut for questioning regarding this transaction and some other agreements that led to a political blame game between Maharashtra and the Center with various constituents of the state government led by Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) claiming that the Center was using investigating agencies to harass them.
Varsha Raut skipped the agency notice three times and is now expected to join the investigation before the ED in Mumbai on January 5.
Sanjay Raut, while giving a press conference in Mumbai earlier this week, had denied any wrongdoing on the part of his wife and said they were in correspondence with the emergency department regarding the case for about a month and a half.
Raut, 59, is a deputy for Rajya Sabha and also a spokesperson for the Shiv Sena, who is in power in Maharashtra and is a former ally of the BJP. He said that details about the Rs 55 lakh loan transaction have already been submitted to ED during correspondence.
The ED said that it has provisionally attached Rs 72 crore in Pravin Raut’s assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), as it explained in a statement the alleged financial ties between himself, his wife and that of Sanjay Raut .
“The probe revealed that Rs 95 crore has been diverted through HDIL by one of the accused Pravin Raut in active conspiracy and collusion with various people.” The source of funds was illegal HDIL loans / advances from PMC Bank. There was no document or agreement to support these payments made to Pravin Raut, “the ED alleged in a statement.
It said, “According to the HDIL ledger, the funds were given to Pravin Raut to acquire land in the Palghar area.” The investigation found, it said, that Pravin Raut “paid an amount of Rs 1.6 crore to his wife Madhuri Pravin Raut with proceeds of the crime.”
From such money, Madhuri Raut transferred Rs 55 lakh (Rs 50L on December 23, 2010 and Rs 5L on March 15, 2011) as an interest-free loan to Varsha Raut, who is the wife of Sanjay Raut. “Was further used. for the purchase of a flat in Dadar East, Mumbai, “stated the ED.
The investigation found that Varsha Sanjay Raut and Madhuri Pravin Raut “are partners in Avani Construction and Varsha Raut has received Rs 12 lakh from this entity (as overdraft capital converted to loan) in a contribution of only Rs 5,625”. “The loan amount of Rs 12 lakh still remains outstanding,” he said.
The ED had filed a criminal money laundering case to investigate alleged loan fraud at the Bank of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) in October last year against Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), its promoters Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan , his son Sarang Wadhawan, his former president Waryam Singh and former managing director Joy Thomas.
It became aware of a Mumbai Police Economic Crimes FIR wing against them which accused them of causing “unfair losses, prima facie in the amount of Rs 4,355 million to PMC Bank, and corresponding profits to themselves.”
The DE has attached assets of Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, the Wadhawan family trust and others worth Rs 293 crore and had seized jewelry worth Rs 63 crore.
In this case, he had also filed a charge sheet.
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