A few weeks ago, they made the plan to detain Sanjay Raut. He skipped the summons twice to appear for questioning in an alleged land scam case. If you look at the chronology of the event, you will see how everything was well-scripted to first demoralise and break Raut. First, some audio went viral in the media; in which he was abusing a woman. An alleged conversation between Raut and Swapna Patker, went viral on the internet. Raut was using foul language while speaking to her. Patker is the same lady who had in 2021 alleged that she is being harassed by Sanjay Raut, for the past eight years. There were long trials in the media. Somehow he was dealing with this shock; they gave him another shock. Point to be noted here is his loyalty towards his party. He could have easily switched sides and safeguard himself like other rebel leaders.
Early in the morning at 7 am, the probe agency team, accompanied by Central Industrial Security Force officials, reached Raut’s home in Bhandup and began searching the property. All that went on for eight long hours. The Enforcement Directorate was questioning Raut, in connection with the re-development of a chawl in Mumbai and related transactions involving his wife and close associates.
Raut in an interview said my wife took money 14 years back and Patra Chwal development is recent. The transaction and scam have no relation to each other; he also said that he doesn’t know what the chawl looks like. While he was being taken away, Raut told reporters, “They have planted fake evidence against me. This is a conspiracy against me and the Shiv Sena. I won’t bow down.”
In the same month, last year exactly one year ago, police reached Swapna Patker’s house without a search warrant. They took her along with them and arrested in the fake degree case. While going with police, she also asserted that they created the fake evidence against her. Swapna and Raut have had family disputes for the past several years. Well now a city magistrate court has directed the Vakola police station to further investigate a complaint lodged in 2013 by Swapna for assault in which the police had filed a closure report.
Patker, in her protest petition against the closure report, has said that the police had not investigated her husband Sujit Patker, with whom she had strained relations and Sanjay Raut, she has suspicions on. She accused Raut of giving perks to her husband Sujit to harass her, but the police never probed them both. Whereas her husband Sujit Patker said it was he who filed for the divorce after the atrocities on him. He said Swapna is the one who introduced him to Raut.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SB Bhajiale said in his order that the complainant herself provided names of suspicious persons but the investigating officer has never examined them. The police had filed an ‘A’ summary report in the case, as they could not find the unknown culprits. Well, recently all was not well with Raut and Shiv Sena. One fine day Maha Vikas Aghadi shockingly collapsed. Uddhav had to resign, and Raut came in ED clutches. Government changed and the few BJP leaders supported the woman for their own political motives. They could have supported her earlier. Why only now? Whatever must be the reason, the scenario has completely changed. It is a personal as well as political saga.
After one year, somewhat similar things are happening. In April, the Enforcement Directorate attaches assets worth over ₹ 11.15 crore of Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates. The properties include a flat in Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patker, the wife of Sujit Patker, a “close associate” of Sanjay Raut. The agency wants to question Raut to know about his “business and other links” with his close associates Pravin Raut and Sujit Patker and also about the property deals involving their wives.
ED arrested Pravin Raut in a probe linked to a ₹ 1,034 crore alleged land scam related to the re-development of Patra chawl. He is currently in judicial custody. Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd was involved in re-development of the “chawl”, which had 672 tenants living in tenements on 47 acres belonging to the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA. At present Sanjay Raut is dealing with two different cases and challenges, one is allegations of Swapna Patker and another one is Patra chawl scam. When Shiv Sena was in Power with or without BJP they could survive against all allegations and odds. Since they shunted Shiv Sena out of power the party has two different battles to deal, one the allegations on personal front and second the political party’s existence.
Let’s see what time unfolds. One thing is sure, politics knows no morals anything can happen, but one who holds power is powerful and the target can be those who protest or speak against power. Let it be the Maha Vikas Aghadi government or BJP government, protesters in all forms are sent behind the bars. It is impossible to say what will happen next in politics because politics has become the game of odds. While concluding I want to make a statement, that Raut is certainly a victim of circumstances in both the cases, personal and political.
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