Tanisha Rana
Published on: November 9, 2022 at 22:47 IST
Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP and the leader of the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray faction, was granted bail on Wednesday by a Mumbai court in the case accusing him of money laundering.
Today’s verdict was pronounced by Special Judge MG Deshpande.
Pravin Raut, a co-accused in the same case, was also granted bail by the judge.
In order to fight the ruling in an appeal before the High Court, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who was representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), requested a week-long stay on the order’s effects.
“It is your order, you can stay when it will be operative. I am only asking for stay of a week. Court may grant stay for 2-3 days also. I want some chance and breathing time to approach the High court. Is the request unreasonable? Kindly don’t give effect the order till Friday,” the ASG said.
Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Abad Ponda, who was representing Pravin, argued against the stay by referring to it as a matter of personal liberty.
The Court declined ED’s request for a stay on the application of the order after briefly hearing from the parties.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is looking into a money laundering case involving the redevelopment of a chawl project in a Mumbai suburb up north.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Raut on July 31 in connection with the investigation into money laundering.
In connection with the redevelopment of Patra Chawl and related transactions involving his wife and “associates,” he was called in for questioning.
After being detained by the ED for eight days following his arrest on July 31, Raut was transferred to judicial custody.
On September 7, he made a bail request, stating that ED had brought the case against him to crush any opposition the ruling party could have.
He further argued that the Rs. 1.06 crore listed as criminal proceeds was properly accounted for and justified.
On the other hand, the agency said that Raut committed the crime in this instance for private gain at the cost of public funds.
Additionally, the central agency claimed that Raut’s accused proxy and aide Pravin Raut had a significant part in the offence.
Senior Advocate Ashok Mundargi and Advocates Vikas Sabne represented Sanjay Raut.
Advocates Nitesh Jain, Hridhay Khurana, Adrish Majumder, Somit Kumar Singh, and Sanjana Mehta from Trilegal briefed Ponda, who represented Pravin Raut.
Advocates Hiten Venegaonkar, Aditya Thakkar, and Ashish Chavan briefed ASG.