Sanjay Raut walks out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail after securing bail in money laundering case

At around 5 p.m., Mr. Raut’s legal team dropped his bail order into the Arthur Road jail box and at about 6.50 p.m., Uddhav Thackeray faction laeder stepped out of the prison

Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut walked out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail on Wednesday evening, hours after a special court granted him bail in a money laundering case.

He was arrested on August 1 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the money laundering case related to a housing project in suburban Goregaon.

At around 5 p.m., Mr. Raut’s legal team dropped his bail order into the Arthur Road jail box and at about 6.50 p.m., the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader stepped out of the prison, where he had spent more than three months.

A large number of supporters of the Rajya Sabha member, who had assembled outside the jail, burst into celebration as soon as he walked out of the jail and raised slogans hailing him. Firecrackers were set off near the jail in central Mumbai by Mr. Raut’s supporters.

Earlier in the day, a special court granted bail to Mr. Raut in a 2018 chawl redevelopment case related to irregularities.

After being questioned for nine hours on June 28, he was arrested on August 1 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on allegations of money laundering and irregularities pertaining to the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl in Mumbai’s Goregaon. It is alleged by the ED that the developers, one of them is a close associate of Mr. Raut, fraudulently made ₹1,039.79 crore from this scheme and Mr. Raut also benefited from the same. On August 8, Mr. Raut was sent to judicial custody. The ED had previously attached assets belonging to Mr. Raut and questioned his wife Varsha in this case.