In a letter to the Additional Director (Western Region) of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Swapna Patkar, a witness in the money-laundering case involving Goregaon’s Patra Chawl, claims she was threatened with death and subjected to sexual assault “for changing the statements given during the investigation of the case.”
Patkar added in the letter, “I would want to bring to your notice that the accused in the case, along with his touts and henchmen, are engaging in witness intimidation and tampering with me and possibly with others on a regular basis. I’m under constant pressure to alter the statements I made during the investigations, and I’m also being threatened and threatened with losing ownership of some lands and properties that belong to one of the accused, Sanjay Raut, and his family.”
Swapna Patkar previously reported to the Vakola police in Mumbai that on Wednesday, someone had thrown a bottle into her home’s grounds. Inside the bottle, there was a letter threatening her to not speak up in the court. She claims that on Wednesday night, at around one in the morning, she heard a glass bottle breaking on her property. She discovered that there was a letter written in Marathi within the bottle after asking her security personnel about it.
Notably, Sanjay Raut, a member of the Shiv Sena (UBT), is allegedly accused in the case. In an effort to stop the money laundering case related to the Rs 1034 crore Patra Chawl land scandal, the Enforcement Department called Raut on June 28, 2022. Redevelopment of Patra Chawl, a western suburb of Mumbai in the Siddarth Nagar district of Goregaon, began in 2008. The housing units were dispersed across 47 acres, accommodating 672 occupants.
Originally built as a barrack by the British during World War II, Patra Chawl served as a military camp. In order to renovate the area and rehabilitate around 670 tenants, MHADA took on the redevelopment project in 2008 and hired Guru Ashish Construction Private Limited (GACPL), a sister business of the real estate firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL). Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, and the society signed a tripartite agreement.
The developer was required by the agreement to build apartments for MHADA and give units to 672 tenants, with the developer selling the remaining space after that. The Guru Ashish Constructions directors deceived MHADA by selling the FSI to nine developers, making a net profit of approximately Rs. 901.79 crore without building the MHADA section or the rehabilitation for the 672 displaced tenants.
Source: ANI
