Mumbai: A special court on Friday allowed Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, an accused in a money-laundering case related to Goregaon’s Patra Chawl, to renew his diplomatic passport. Sanjay Raut and his wife had filed an application in the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court demanding the renewal of his diplomatic passport which was accepted by the court today.
Diplomatic and Official passports are issued to people holding diplomatic status or deputed by the Government of India for official duty abroad. The Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and the second accused Praveen Raut were granted bail in November 2022 by the PMLA court in Mumbai in connection with the case.
On June 28, 2022, Raut was summoned by the ED in connection to the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Back in August 2022, his wife was also summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the scam. Patra Chawl, in the Siddarth Nagar area of Goregaon, a western suburb of Mumbai, went for redevelopment in 2008. It had 672 tenants, and the housing units were spread across 47 acres.
Patra Chawl was originally a barrack constructed by the British during the Second World War and was used as a military camp. In 2008, MHADA took up the redevelopment project and appointed Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL), a sister concern of the real estate company Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), to rehabilitate over 670 tenants and redevelop the locality. A tripartite agreement was signed between society, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd.
According to the agreement, the developer was to provide the flats to 672 tenants and develop flats for MHADA and thereafter remaining area to be sold by the developer. The directors of Guru Ashish Constructions misled MHADA and sold the FSI to 9 developers and collected a net amount of approx. Rs 901.79 crore without constructing the rehab portion for 672 displaced tenants and the MHADA portion.
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