PMC Bank case: ED summons Sanjay Raut's wife

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Varsha Raut, wife of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, for questioning in the PMC Bank money laundering case on December 29, officials said on Sunday.

Varsha Raut has been asked to appear before the federal agency in Mumbai. This is the third summons issued to her after she skipped the earlier two on health grounds, they said.

The summons for questioning has been issued to her under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED wants to question Varsha Raut with regard to "receipt" of some funds that were allegedly siphoned from the bank, official sources claimed.

The ED had filed a PMLA case to probe the alleged loan fraud in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank in October last year against the Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd, its promoters Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan, its former chairman Waryam Singh and ex-managing director Joy Thomas.

The agency took cognisance of a Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing FIR against them for allegedly causing "wrongful loss, prima facie to the tune of Rs 4,355 crore to PMC Bank, and corresponding gains to themselves".

The Shiv Sena, which is part of Maharashtra's ruling alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi along with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, had earlier alleged that central probe agencies have been targeting them unfairly.

Former BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who recently joined Sharad Pawar's NCP, has also been summoned by the ED for questioning on December 30 in Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case linked to a land deal in Pune's Bhosri area.