In the Patra Chawl scam, the enforcement directorate has made new claims that the project has many proxies as owners. Proxies in the planned Meadows building booked over a hundred flats, the saleable component in the Patra chawl redevelopment project, suspects the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that is probing a money laundering case related to it.
The ED has issued a summons to those who booked the flats with Guru Ashish Construction, a subsidiary of housing firm HDIL, which was implementing the project. They found some addresses of the buyers to be fake. The ED believes the developer booked flats for powerful people under fake names after taking a nominal amount of token or with no payment instead of their help in simplifying the fraud.
A special court in Mumbai has taken cognizance of the chargesheet filed against investor Pravin Raut, said to be a close aide of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, and the promoters of a company called HDIL – Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan. The court has issued a summons to the accused while the agency has said that it intends to continue with its probe and will file a supplementary chargesheet later.
The prosecution complaint also mentions another company called Avani Infrastructure, a partnership firm that constructed a building in Santacruz West. The ED states that Varsha and Pravin Raut are partners. According to the agency, Varsha Raut’s capital investment was Rs 5,525 and her share of profit was Rs 14 lakh, while Madhuri Raut’s investment was Rs 13.05 lakh and her share of profit was also Rs 14 lakh.
According to the prosecution complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) before the special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Rs 95 crore received in Pravin Raut’s bank accounts from real estate company HDIL between 2008-2010. According to the agency, Raut could not explain these transfers and the ED believes that these are proceeds of crime that pertained to a company called Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd.
In 2005, an argument between society and developers arose because of the smaller area of flats given to the tenants. The society ended the agreement with the developer and went into various litigation. Thereafter, in 2006, Goregaon Siddharth Nagar Grah Nirman Sanstha appointed GuruAshish Construction Pvt Ltd as the developer to redevelop the 672 tenements. A tripartite agreement for joint development started on April 10, 2008, between MHADA and Sanstha for the redevelopment of the 672 tenements on the land belonging to MHADA.
