A Mumbai court on Wednesday, 9 November, granted bail to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in connection with a money laundering case against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The court had reserved its order on 21 October on his bail plea after hearing arguments from both sides.
The Patra Chawl land scam case for which Raut was arrested on 1 August, concerns the crucial Patra Chawl Development Project that has been underway in Maharashtra for over a decade.
The ED had alleged a scam of a whopping Rs 1039.79 crore in the project, and part of the mammoth account was traced back to properties owned by Sanjay Raut's wife, Varsha Raut.
He had applied for bail on 7 September contending that ED’s case against him was intended to crush the opposition faced by the ruling party.
He had also argued that the amount shown as proceeds of crime was accounted for and explained.