Did Sanjay Raut write Saamna column from jail? ED to question Shiv Sena MP

Mumbai, Aug 08: The new edition of Saamna is out and it is all about slamming the governor of Maharashtra. Now, ED is interested in knowing if Sanjay Raut wrote this column while in jail, because that would count as against the law, if he did so.

According to the officials, Raut cannot write columns or articles while in custody unless he has been granted permission by the court for the same.

According to a report by the Times of India, Sena leaders speculated that Saamna staffers were responsible for the weekly column, which featured Raut's byline and photograph.

The column hit out at Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over his remarks that Mumbai will cease to be India's financial capital if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis were excluded.

Slamming the ED, the column writes: "Sugar factories, textile mills and other industries run by Marathi people have been shut down by ED and a web of cases cast around Marathi entrepreneurs. The government should talk about this too."

The ED will produce Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, arrested in a money laundering case, before a special court in Mumbai on Monday.

Raut, a Rajya Sabha member, was found to be beneficiary of Rs 1.17 crore of proceeds of crime in addition of Rs 1.06 crore that had come to light earlier, it claimed.

The Shiv Sena leader was arrested on August 1 in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the Patra Chawl (row tenement) in suburban Goregaon.

The documents seized during the probe showed the purchase of properties at Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district by Raut involved substantial cash transactions, the ED had said.

As much as Rs 1.08 crore was found in the bank account of Sanjay Raut's wife Varsha Raut, the probe agency had claimed.

Sanjay Raut, 60, is a close aide of Shiv Sena president and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Raut has denied any wrongdoing and called the ED case against him as ''false''.