Sanjay Raut emerged from the Arthur Highway Jail in central Mumbai to an enormous welcome.
Mumbai:
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was launched from jail on Wednesday, hours after he was granted bail by a court docket in an alleged cash laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that was sharply rebuked for arresting the politician “illegally” with a “pick-and-choose perspective”.
He emerged from the Arthur Highway Jail in central Mumbai to an enormous welcome from members of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, waving a saffron scarf from the sunroof of an SUV.
Mr Raut’s launch was additionally cleared by the Bombay Excessive Court docket, which refused to place the bail on maintain as requested by the central company tasked with probing monetary crimes.
Stating that it can’t go such an order with out listening to each events, the excessive court docket listed the matter for listening to on Thursday.
“I’ve not even seemed on the order. I do not know on what grounds bail has been granted. I do not know on what grounds you (the ED) have challenged the order. How can I grant a keep now with out even listening to the events,” Excessive Court docket Justice Bharati Dangre stated.
A particular court docket earlier within the day granted bail to Mr Raut and co-accused Pravin Raut whereas rejecting the ED’s request to remain the impact of the order until Friday.
In scathing observations within the order in opposition to the Enforcement Directorate, choose MG Deshpande referred to as the company’s actions a “witch-hunt”, and stated, “I maintain that each accused are principally arrested illegally.”
“Merely labelling pure civil disputes with ‘cash laundering’ or ‘Financial Offence’ can’t robotically purchase such standing and finally drag an harmless particular person right into a depressing state of affairs within the guise of arrest… Court docket has to do what is correct, regardless of who’s earlier than it,” the choose stated.
“From the data supplies and the detailed dialogue made, it’s clear how Pravin Raut is arrested for pure civil litigation, whereas Sanjay Raut for no motive. This reality is obtrusive,” the order learn.
The ED arrested Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP and a vocal critic of the BJP authorities on the centre, on August 1 accusing him of monetary irregularities in reference to the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl tenement in suburban Goregaon.
The court docket stated the conduct of the Maharashtra Housing and Space Improvement Authority (MHADA), which filed the case, was “suspicious proper from the start”.
“MHADA’s perspective of lodging such an FIR (First Info Report) one superb can neither throw mud within the eyes of the court docket nor can it brush and wash out lengthy civil litigations,” it stated.
It was an “astonishing admitted indisputable fact that essential accused Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan of HDIL, who had not solely generated over Rs 1,000 crore, but additionally allegedly positioned, layered and built-in the identical, had been by no means arrested by the ED,” the court docket stated.
“On the identical time, Sanjay Raut and Pravin Raut had been arrested. This clearly signifies disparity, and ED’s pick-and-choose perspective,” it stated.