MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday walked out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail after spending 102 days behind bars, as a special PMLA court here granted him bail in an alleged money laundering case.
The court pulled up the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for arresting the Shiv Sena MP illegally and “for no reason”. It also granted bail to Raut’s aide and co-accused Pravin Raut. While granting the bail, the court passed scathing observations against the ED, terming the arrests “illegal” and a “witch-hunt”, adding that the federal agency seems to be adopting a pick-and-choose strategy while arresting people in money laundering cases. Special judge M G Deshpande questioned why the main accused in the case, Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan of real estate firm HDIL, were never arrested.
Raut was arrested on July 31, 2022 after the ED alleged he, through his proxy Pravin, received `3.27 crore from Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd. According to the ED, this included money routed through bank channel as well as through cash transactions. The court observed that the ED arrested Pravin purely for
a “civil dispute” and Sanjay for “no reasons”.