[BREAKING] Mumbai Court grants bail to Sanjay Raut in money laundering case

A Mumbai court on Wednesday granted bail to Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha MP and leader in Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, in the money laundering case against him. .Special judge MG Deshpande pronounced the verdict today. The judge also granted bail to Pravin Raut, a co-accused in the same case.Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought stay on the effect of the order for a week in order to challenge in appeal before High Court. "It is your order, you can stay when it will be operative. I am only asking for stay of a week. Court may grant stay for 2-3 days also. I want some chance and breathing time to approach the High court. Is the request unreasonable? Kindly don't give effect the order till Friday" the ASG said.Meanwhile Senior Advocate Abad Ponda appearing for Pravin opposed the stay calling it a question of personal liberty. After hearing the parties briefly, the Court turned down ED's request for stay on the operation of the order. .The money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is in relation to the redevelopment of a chawl project in a northern suburb of Mumbai..Raut was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 31 in connection with the money laundering case.He was summoned for questioning in the re-development of Patra chawl and related transactions involving his wife and ‘associates’. He was arrested on July 31 and after spending 8 days in ED’s custody, Raut was remanded to judicial custody.He moved for bail on September 7 claiming that ED’s case against him was filed to crush the opposition faced by the ruling party. He also contended that the amount of ₹1.06 crore shown as proceeds of crime was accounted for and explained.The agency on the other hand, contended that the offence in the present case was for Raut’s private gain at the cost of public fund.The central agency also contended that Raut played a major role in the offence through his proxy and alleged aide Pravin Raut..Sanjay Raut was represented by Senior Advocate Ashok Mundargi and Advocates Vikas Sabne. Pravin Raut was represented by Ponda who was briefed by Advocates Nitesh Jain, Hridhay Khurana, Adrish Majumder, Somit Kumar Singh and Sanjana Mehta from Trilegal. ASG was briefed by Advocates Hiten Venegaonkar, Aditya Thakkar and Ashish Chavan.