MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has rejected Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's request seeking an exemption until July 7 citing a busy schedule. The agency issued a second summons for Friday to record his statement in a money laundering case.
Raut, who is being probed in a money laundering case linked to properties acquired by his wife and associates, failed to turn up at the ED's office in Ballard Estate on Monday. Instead, he wrote to theED asking for an exemption from questioning until July 7. The ED declined the request and issued a second summons for Friday.
The ED is investigating two separate money laundering cases against DHFL and Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) groups along with persons connected with them. Among documents seized in the two cases, the ED said it has found entries believed to connect Sanjay Raut to the companies.Raut has sought to paint the central agency's action as a politically motivated move aimed at curbing his activities amidst the crisis in the Sena. On Monday, when he received news of the summons, Raut called it "a conspiracy to stop me."
Replying to TOI regarding the DHFL and HDIL cases in which the ED seeks to interrogate him, the Sena trouble-shooter said, "I have never met these people in my life. Not even talked (to them). All are political games to stop me from shielding my party."
In the DHFL case, its erstwhile promoters-Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj-took credit facilities from a Union Bank of India-led consortium of 17 banks and defaulted on Rs 34,615 crore in loans. The brothers allegedly siphoned off the funds from DHFL through fictitious transactions in the guise of loans to prominent builders. These builders had defaulted on repayments to DHFL.
The HDIL case is related to a Rs 1,200-crore chawl redevelopment fraud, in which the ED considers the company's promoters Rakesh Wadhawan, son Sarang, and Pravin Raut, an associate of Sanjay Raut, as prime suspects. HDIL's subsidiary Guru Ashish Construction bagged the commission for redevelopment of Goregaon's Patra chawl after entering into agreement with the land owner, Mhada, a state agency, and the chawl's residents. Guru Ashish sold the FSI available on the plot to builders fraudulently without executing the project.
