Sanjay Raut prima facie appears to be recipient of proceeds of crime: Mumbai Court takes cognizance of ED chargesheet

A Mumbai court on Monday took cognizance of the five volumes of chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut observing that Raut prima facie seemed to have been recipient of the proceeds of crime in the money laundering case linked to the redevelopment of a chawl project in a northern suburb of Mumbai..The special judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) MG Deshpande took cognizance of the chargesheet on Monday, however the order was made available last night..The judge made the following prima facie observations in the order:That the ₹1,039 crore money trail, which had begun from Kiyana Ventures Pvt Ltd., came to Raut through his wife who allegedly received ₹1.06 crore.That he is recipient of proceeds of crime as per documents and statements recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA;That there are sufficient grounds to proceed against Raut and issue process against him..With these observations, the Court issued notice to Raut for appearance in Court on the next date of hearing, which was today.Accordingly, Raut appeared in Court today. After taking note of his appearance, the judge fixed his bail application for hearing on September 27, 2022. .Raut was arrested by ED on July 31. The special court had passed an order on August 1 granting four-day custody to ED, which was extended till August 8. Thereafter, he was remanded to judicial custody which has been extended thrice till October 3, 2022..The chargesheet by ED stated that the MP was involved in the redevelopment project and recipient of proceeds of crime since its inception in 2006.The chargesheet further said that a total of ₹1,039.70 crore was received in the accounts of HDIL and Guru Ashish Constructions of which ₹112 crores was received by Pravin Raut.“Proceeds of the crime received by Raut are to the tune of over ₹3 crores. Pravin was able to liaise with government authorities and obtain approvals from authorities due to his closeness with Sanjay Raut,” the chargesheet alleged..On the other hand, Raut’s lawyer Vikrant Sabne informed the Court of a judicial order of 2020 wherein the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai had claimed they had no objection to the release of Pravin Raut as there was not enough evidence against him and that a closure report would be filed soon.Interestingly, this offence registered by EOW (part of the Mumbai Police) forms the predicate offence on the basis of which ED registered its Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and arrested Pravin and Raut..This also forms one of the grounds in the bail application filed by Raut before the Special Court..[Read order]