Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday complained to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu that the Enforcement Directorate was targeting him and his family.
Raut has been considered the national face of the Shiv Sena and had publicly supported the party ending its alliance with the BJP in 2019 and forming a coalition government in Maharashtra with the Congress and NCP.
Raut shared on Twitter the letter he wrote to Naidu, listing his allegations. Raut claimed the ED was harassing him and his family after he refused to help topple the Uddhav Thackeray government, ostensibly to make way for a BJP-led dispensation.
Raut alleged that even ED officials had admitted to him that they had been asked by their bosses to “fix” him.
Raut was quoted by NDTV as saying, “About a month ago, I was approached by certain people and was told to assist them in toppling the state government in Maharashtra. They wanted me to be instrumental in such endeavour so that the state could be forced into a midterm election. I refused to be a party to any such clandestine agenda which was being pursued, upon which I was warned that my refusal could lead to my paying a very heavy price. I was even told that my fate could be like that of a former union railway minister who spent many years behind bars.”
Raut appeared to be referring to former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has remained a trenchant critic of the BJP.
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Raut claimed people who sold him land in Alibaug were being threatened by the ED. “This is also happening to other people who had sold... small piece of land to me and my family in 2012-2013. Day after day, ED and other agencies personnel call these people and threaten them with jail and attachment of their personal properties unless they give their statements against me,” Raut was quoted as saying by NDTV. Raut alleged 28 people had been “wrongfully confined” by probe agencies to force them to give statements against him.
Raut alleged even other politicians and ministers of the Uddhav cabinet had been threatened with imprisonment to force them to topple the state government. “I was even warned that apart from me, two other senior ministers in the cabinet of the state of Maharashtra as well as two senior leaders in Maharashtra would also be sent behind the bars under the PMLA Act which would lead to midterm elections in the state of Maharashtra with all important leaders in the state being behind bars,” Raut was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Raut said, “Ever since Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP in the state of Maharashtra, we find Shiv Sena MPs/leaders being systematically targeted by using law enforcing agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate being let loose against us and in the process. Enforcement Directorate Personnel is leaving no stone unturned to intimidate/harass our legislators, MPs, political leaders as well as their relatives, friends, and acquaintances.”
