Amid political turmoil in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering probe linked to the re-development of a Mumbai 'chawl'
According to reports, Raut wasn asked to depose before the federal agency at its office in south Mumbai on June 28 and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The development comes as the party battles a group of rebel MLAs, putting a question mark on the future of Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
The ED in April provisionally attached assets worth more than Rs 11.15 crore of Raut's wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.
The political turbulence in Maharashtra was triggered by the faction war in Shiv Sena after Eknath Shinde flew to Surat with some MLAs and then to Guwahati where he claims to have the support of 38 MLAs of the 55 Shiv Sena legislators, which is more than two-thirds of the party's strength in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. It means that they can either leave and form another political party or merge with another without being disqualified from the state assembly.
