As ED attaches his properties, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut terms it as “harassment” of middle-class Maharashtrians

Raut quips, “BJP is digging its own grave by misusing law enforcement agencies and lodging false cases”

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Mumbai: A bitter, embattled senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut termed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) attachment of what he called “honestly, hard-earned personal wealth” is an example of persecution of middle-class Maharashtrians in Maharashtra. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – ruled Centre of unleashing central agencies against him after he allegedly refused to help the BJP topple the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress led ruling ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

Speaking to newspersons in New Delhi, the Sena spokesperson denied he had acquired any illegal ‘property’ except his flat in Dadar and a piece of land not more than an acre in his ancestral place Alibaug in Raigad district and said that he had been fully aware for some time now that central agencies had been put hot on his tail.

Raut remarked, “I am a Shiv Sainik. These false investigations do not scare me or my party. I will never bow before this politics of revenge of vendetta.” He further claimed that he was not given any prior notice by the agency before the ED attached his flat in Dadar and land parcels in Alibaug on Tuesday. 

The Sena leader disclosed that he had written to Vice-President of India and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu in February claiming that the central probe agencies had been let loose against leaders of his party ever since the Shiv Sena had ended its 25-year-old alliance with the BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election.

Trying to sound combative, Raut “I have been a fighter throughout. I have worked alongside (late Sena chief) Balasaheb Thackeray for 30 years. I will never remain silent despite all this. It is the BJP which will now have to remain silent.” 

He said that he did receive calls of solidarity from several people including Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. 

It may be recalled that last week, Raut had lambasted that the State Home department, which is under the NCP’s control (with Dilip Walse-Patil the Home Minister) was not being ‘aggressive’ enough in its response to frequent raids by central agencies on MVA leaders – which the three ruling parties have long accused of being the handiwork of the BJP-ruled Centre.   

Terming the ED’s action purely “political pressure”, Raut boisterously remarked that if indeed there has been irregularity of even Rs 1 on his or his wife’s behalf in their property transactions, then he was prepared to transfer all his property in the name of the BJP and renounce politics.  

An angry Raut further remarked, “The BJP are beggars. Hence, they use probe agencies to steal others’ properties. I am unperturbed by the ED’s action today. In one sense, it is for Maharashtra’s 11 crore population who are witnessing how ordinary middle-class Maharashtrians are being harassed in their own State.” He further added that never before had politics in Maharashtra had stooped this low. 

He said that the agency’s attachment of his Dadar flat where he and his family lived was an act of “sheer malice.” Raut further added, “It is just for the BJP to gloat on how it drove us out of our own house But I find it amusing that central enforcement agencies can be so flagrantly misused in this fashion.” Raut accused the BJP of trying to destabilize the ruling MVA government ever since its formation in 2019. 

The Maharashtra BJP under Devendra Fadnavis has accused its estranged saffron ally (Shiv Sena) in Maharashtra of “betraying the people’s mandate” after the 2019 Assembly election when the Sena fell out with the BJP over the CM’s post, chose to form the MVA by allying with the ideologically opposed NCP and Congress. 

Following the central agencies’ arresting NCP leaders Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, the Sena has been lately feeling the heat of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with the agency attaching properties worth Rs. 6.45 crore owned by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s brother-in-law Shridhar Patankar. 

It may be recalled that earlier, the Income Tax department had raided the homes of Yashwant Jadhav, an important Sena leader in the Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC) and his family, prompting the latter party to decry misuse of central agencies by the BJP ahead of the high-stakes BMC election to be held later this year. 

This was followed by the ED attaching properties worth Rs. 11.35 crore of Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik and filing a chargesheet in a money laundering case against businessman Pravin Raut, who is said to be a close associate of Sanjay Raut.