New Delhi: “My property is being attached because I did not give in to pressure to topple the Maharashtra government,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said Tuesday after a central agency seized his assets in Alibaug and Dadar, Mumbai.
The Enforcement Directorate froze Raut’s land in Alibaug and a Dadar flat in the course of an investigation into an alleged land scam of Rs 1,034 crore.
A furious Raut said this action was taken because he did not rise to the Centre’s “bait of bringing down the Maharashtra government two years ago”. “I had told the Rajya Sabha chairman about this last year. They then made it clear I would face central probes,” Raut said.
The Sena leader said he had bought the one-acre land in Alibaug in 2009 with his “hard-earned money”. The flat in Dadar is small, he added.
“What money-laundering, bhai? What are they tainting my name with?” he told reporters Tuesday.
Calling himself a fierce disciple of Balasaheb Thackeray, Raut said: “I am not frightened. Seize my property, shoot me, send me to jail… I will keep exposing you.”
Raut said he would not sit quietly for too long. “This has been going on for two years. Those who want to dance can dance. The coming days will prove what is true and what is a lie,” he said.
The Enforcement Directorate in February arrested Maharashtra-based businessman Pravin Raut in this case — related to the redevelopment of a chawl in Mumbai.
Raut’s wife Varsha was also questioned last year in a separate money-laundering case, related to the PMC Bank. She is close to Pravin Raut’s wife Madhuri, the probe agency alleged.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has often accused the Centre of letting loose its agencies on Opposition leaders.
A long-term ally of the BJP, Thackeray parted ways after the last elections and formed the ruling Maha Vikas Agadhi with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.