MUMBAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Monday took Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to a government hospital for check up, after which he will be produced in a special court here.
Raut, who spent the night in ED's south Mumbai office after his arrest in a money laundering case, was taken to the hospital after 12.30 pm.
He was seen waving to media personnel gathered outside the agency's office.
ED arrested Raut on Sunday in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai chawl after conducting a nine-hour search at his residence, during which Rs 11.5 lakh in cash was seized, officials said.
Raut, 60, was arrested after over six hours of questioning at the ED's zonal office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate shortly after Sunday midnight.
He was taken into custody at 12:05 am on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as he was not cooperating in the probe, the officials claimed.
The Rajya Sabha MP of the Sena, led by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, will be produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai later in the day, where the ED will seek his custody.
A team of ED had on Sunday reached his residence in Mumbai's Bhandup area, where they conducted a search, questioned Raut, and by evening, took him for questioning at the agency's south Mumbai office.
Raut's arrest is an attempt to divert the anger brewing against Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari's remarks on Mumbai, party leader Arvind Sawant claimed on Monday.
He said protests will be held in the state spontaneously against the arrest of Raut, a vocal critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre.
"The Enforcement Directorate's action is to divert the anger brewing after the comments made by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari against Maharashtra.
We are not fools who do not understand this diversionary action," said Sawant, the Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai South.
Sanjay Raut was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate probing a money laundering case after Sunday midnight.
Koshyari had triggered a row with his remarks that if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are moved out of Maharashtra, especially from Mumbai and Thane, "you will be left with no money and Mumbai will not remain a financial capital".
He later clarified that his remarks were misconstrued.
Sena workers raised slogans and activists from the party's women's wing attempted to stage a rasta roko in the Shalimar Chowk area in Nashik.
"Efforts are on to suppress the voice of the Shiv Sena through Central agencies such as the ED," said Vijay Karanjkar, the chief of the party's district unit.
The ED has arrested Raut in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a 'chawl' after conducting a nine-hour search at his residence in Mumbai, during which Rs 11.5 lakh cash was seized.
"A conspiracy has been hatched against Raut using the ED, and the BJP is behind all this. The Sena will not back down irrespective of the calamities that come its way and the party will support Raut," the Sena's city unit chief Sudhakar Badgujar said.
Local leaders, office-bearers and activists participated in the agitation held amid police bandobast.
A similar agitation was organised in the Ekatmata Chowk area of Manmad town in the district.