Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was on Monday sent to judicial custody till August 22 in connection with the money laundering case probe related to the Patra Chawl case. A special court in Mumbai allowed all the medicines to the Sena leader in judicial custody which he was allowed in ED custody earlier.

News agency ANI reported that the legal team of Raut will not be moving a bail plea today after he was sent to judicial cutody. 

Raut was arrested on August 1 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl (row tenement) in suburban Goregaon. He was sent to ED custody till August 4, which was later extended till August 8 as the court noted that the agency had made “remarkable progress” in the money laundering probe. 

After his arrest, probe revealed that Raut used Rs 1.17 crore of the proceeds of crime for Alibag properties in addition to Rs 1.06 crore that had come to light earlier, the ED said. As much as Rs 1.08 crore were found in the bank account of Raut’s wife Varsha, the probe agency claimed.

In PMLA cases, the ED has to investigate the source of dirty money and how it was inserted in the financial system, and also it has to investigate the process of proceeds being separated from their illegal source, the judge noted.

Facts revealed in the previous remand require further investigation by summons and confrontation and it can be done “if custody is granted till August 8,” the judge said.

As per the ED, 47 acres of land at Patra Chawl belongs to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and there were 672 tenants living in the tenement on the plot.

Guru Ashish Constructions obtained permission for the redevelopment of the plot with additional Floor Space Index (FSI), but no actual redevelopment took place to date. The tenants were thus left high and dry.

Pravin Raut, already arrested in the case, is one of the directors of the firm. The ED had claimed that he was a frontman for Sanjay Raut.