Sanjay Raut taken to hospital after spending night in ED office

MUMBAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Monday took Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to a government hospital for check up, after which he will be produced in a special court here.

Raut, who spent the night in ED's south Mumbai office after his arrest in a money laundering case, was taken to the hospital after 12.30 pm. He was seen waving to media personnel gathered outside the agency's office.

ED arrested Raut on Sunday in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai chawl after conducting a nine-hour search at his residence, during which Rs 11.5 lakh in cash was seized, officials said.

Raut, 60, was arrested after over six hours of questioning at the ED's zonal office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate shortly after Sunday midnight.

He was taken into custody at 12:05 am on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as he was not cooperating in the probe, the officials claimed.

The Rajya Sabha MP of the Sena, led by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, will be produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai later in the day, where the ED will seek his custody.

A team of ED had on Sunday reached his residence in Mumbai's Bhandup area, where they conducted a search, questioned Raut, and by evening, took him for questioning at the agency's south Mumbai office.