DNA Special: 14 years on, Patra Chawl residents await their dream houses and why Sanjay Raut faces ED action

Today, we have a question for you -- can action taken on corruption charges be avoided saying that government agencies are being misused? Have you ever though why an action taken against a leader in a corruption case ends up being politicised? 

It is often said that the action is being taken since that particular leader is in the opposition. This is what we have been witnessing in the past 24 hours. 

A special court today sent Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to ED custody till August 4 in a money laundering case stemming from a housing project. But this entire matter was presented as if the ED is punishing Raut for being in the opposition. 

This sympathy towards leaders is not new in our country. Whenever there are serious allegations of corruption against a leader, he alleges political vendetta.

They use politics to cover up the entire matter and no honest discussion ever takes place on the corruption and scams done by them. But, we will not do the same. 

Today we will tell you the truth behind all the allegations against Sanjay Raut and will also analyse that in a country, where all the burden of honesty is put on the common man while leaders are left open to do dishonesty, how democracy is put in danger. First of all let me tell you where the arrest of Sanjay Raut really a political affair. 

According to the ED, Sanjay Raut not only faces serious allegations of corruption but also used his power to influence government officials, illegally usurped properties and got lakhs of rupees deposited in his wife's bank accounts. This whole scam is also known as Patra Chawl Scam or Patra Chawl Redevelopment Project Scam.

What is Patra Chawl scam?

Actually, there is an area in North Mumbai's Goregaon, which is called Siddharth Nagar. This is famous as Siddharth Nagar Patra Chawl. Spread over an area of about 47 acres, this area once had 672 houses.

 In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) decided that it would make new houses for the people living in this area and redevelop the entire locality.

The people living in these 672 houses located in Patra Chawl were shown the dream that the government would make them ‘pucca’ houses by collaborating with builders. That is, every family will have its own flat. 

This dream gave a new hope to these people who agreed to vacate their homes for redevelopment. Following this, an agreement was signed. 

This agreement was made between the three parties. The first people were those who used to have homes here. The second party was MHADA i.e. Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority and the third party was a real estate company named Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited. 

Under this agreement, this company GACPL was to build a total of 16 buildings on this land of 47 acres in which 672 flats were to be prepared for the people of Patra Chawl. Apart from this, this company had to give 1,11,476 square meter area separately to MHADA for construction build up.

Once these redevelopment projects would have completed, the company was supposed to develop the left-over land and sell it to people by making flats here with private developers. 

However, the condition here was that this company had to prepare 672 flats first. But it didn't do that. It is alleged that against the agreement, it had already sold the remaining land to seven builders fro  which it made Rs 901 crore.

Apart from this, this company also started a housing project on this land, which was named Meadows. A total of 458 flats were to be built in the society. It is alleged that this company raised Rs 138 crore by selling flats in advance without even developing a housing society. And in this way, by selling a large part of the land on which 672 flats were to be built first for the people of Patra Chawl, this company raised an amount of more than Rs 1,039 crore. 

Sanjay Raut’s role in the land scam

Now the question arises what was the role of Sanjay Raut in all this? The company named Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited, on which there are allegations of financial disturbances and corruption, Praveen Raut was its director. 

Praveen Raut is considered very close to Sanjay Raut. According to the ED, Praveen Raut had wrongly sold the MHADA land to builders and also collected an amount of Rs 112 crore from a construction company named HDIL. Out of this, it is alleged that Sanjay Raut and his wife received Rs 1.06 crore. 

In 2009, a loan of Rs 55 lakh was given to Sanjay Raut's wife Varsha Raut by Praveen Raut and this money was used by Varsha Raut to buy a flat. After this, in 2011, Rs 37.50 lakh was given to Sanjay Raut and Varsha Raut by a company of Praveen Raut. And the highlighting fact is that with this money, Sanjay Raut and his wife bought another flat in Garden Court.

The ED also claims that millions of rupees were invested by Sanjay Raut in Praveen’s company from which the Sena MP and his wife got Rs 37.50 lakh. 

Apart from this, Varsha Raut got Rs 13,94,000 in return for investing in another company. The ED is investigating what did Sanjay Raut and his wife do with this money. Overall, the ED has traced a money trail of Rs 1.06 crore related to Sanjay Raut and his wife and the investigation of the rest of the money trail is still on. However this story does not end here.

In 2010-11, Sanjay Raut bought 10 plots in Alibaug, Mumbai. All these plots were bought in the name of Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar. The thing to note here is that Swapna Patkar has said in her complaint to the ED that Sanjay Raut is threatening her to remain quiet in this matter.

In simple words, the story is that there used to be 672 houses on a piece of land in Mumbai. The people living there were showed a dream that MHADA would give them the house of their dream. The company that got the contract did not build flats but sold the the land to builders.

Lakhs of rupees were deposited in the bank accounts of Sanjay Raut and his wife by this company. And Sanjay Raut also bought a lot of properties during this period. 

Now think, who was wrong in this whole matter? Sanjay Raut, who is accused of colluding with a scam company and creating wealth? Or wrong happened to those people who had dreamed of getting flat in Patra chawl? In our country whenever a leader gets implicated in any corruption case, he says that he is being framed.