NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to Shiv Sena lawmaker Sanjay Raut asking him to join its probe on July 1 in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the re-development of a Mumbai ‘chawl’. He was issued the first summons for Tuesday but he sought more time citing official commitments and a meeting he was supposed to attend at Alibaug in Raigad district of the state.
His lawyers met Enforcement Directorate officials in Mumbai on Tuesday and sought about two weeks’ time for his appearance, but the agency gave him relief only until this month-end. Raut also held a press conference in the morning and said he “will go” to the ED the moment he gets free. “I am a lawmaker. I know the law.
Even if the law implementing agencies are working in the wrong way, I am a law-abiding person,” he said. On Monday, when Raut was asked to appear before the agency officials, he dared them to arrest him. “I have just learned that I am summoned by the ED. Good! There are big political developments in Maharashtra…,” Raut said on social media.
He is fronting the battle for the survival of the Uddhav Thackeray government. “We, Balasaheb’s Shivsainiks, are fighting a big battle. This is a conspiracy to stop me. Even if you behead me, I won’t take the Guwahati route. Arrest me! Jai Hind!” said Raut.
The federal financial investigating agency started a money laundering probe on the basis of an FIR registered by the Mumbai police economic offences wing in March 2018. The case was filed against Guru Ashish Constructions Pvt Ltd, R. Kumar Wadhwan, S. Kumar Wadhwan, Pravin Raut, a former director of Guru Ashish Constructions, and others.