MUMBAI: A special court in Mumbai has summoned Prathamesh Developers through its partner businessman Pravin Raut in connection to a money laundering case tied to the Patra Chawl scam, noting their involvement in siphoning off the proceeds of crime.
Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (UBT), is also implicated in the case, which is being heard by a special court for lawmakers.
On September 20, special judge for criminal cases involving MPs/MLAs, Satyanarayan Navander, asserted that there is clear prima facie evidence of money laundering.
The court issued summonses to Prathamesh Developers via its partner Pravin Raut—a close associate of Sanjay Raut—and another accused, Jitendra Mehta of Mehta Developers, following a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The court noted that the company and Mehta were engaged in generating and diverting the proceeds of crime.
This case revolves around alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in suburban Goregaon and related transactions.
Patra Chawl, located in Siddharth Nagar, spans 47 acres and houses 672 tenant families.
In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) assigned the redevelopment contract to Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd (GACPL), a sister company of the now-defunct Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL).
GACPL was tasked with constructing 672 flats for the tenants and providing some to MHADA, while also selling the remaining land to private developers.
However, the tenants never received any flats as GACPL failed to redevelop Patra Chawl and instead sold land parcels and Floor Space Index (FSI) rights to other builders for Rs 1,034 crore, according to the ED.
Starting in 2010, GACPL, through HDIL, launched a project named Meadows at Patra Chawl and collected Rs 138 crore from 458 prospective homebuyers.
Allegedly, the accused generated a total of Rs 1,039.79 crore from the illegal sale of FSI. A portion of these funds was supposedly used for development, but most were siphoned off to various accounts, the ED claims.
The financial investigation agency also alleges that HDIL promoter Sarang Wadhawan and Pravin Raut sold FSI to third-party developers, amassing Rs 1,039.79 crore from 2010 to 2014.
Instead of directing these sale proceeds towards the construction of flats for tenants and MHADA, the amounts were diverted to various accounts connected to HDIL and its affiliated firms, according to the ED.
Prathamesh Developers was reportedly used by Pravin Raut to integrate the diverted proceeds of crime for acquiring immovable properties in the company’s name.
The court concluded that Prathamesh Developers and Mehta were involved in generating and redirecting the proceeds of crime, necessitating the issuance of summonses against them.
