Mumbai

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into the allegations of a "Rs 500 crore" payout to Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange.

The Rajya Sabha member said these revelations, made in the form of an audio clip by Jarange, are of extremely serious nature in many ways. However, the most shocking and serious issue is the involvement of a huge amount of Rs 500 crore, he stated in the letter.

Last week, Jarange released an audio clip purportedly featuring a conversation in which it was claimed that he had been paid Rs 500 crore through Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, son of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The activist, who has denied accepting any money, claimed a plot had been hatched against him because he was raising the issues of farmers and common citizens.

Eknath Shinde and Shrikant Shinde have denied the allegation that any money was routed to Jarange through them.

Raut said, "It (the charges) needs to be thoroughly probed as to who gave Rs 500 crore to whom and if this money did not reach Jarange Patil, where did this money disappear? From where did such a big sum of money come from, and where did it go?"

What seems to have happened is a classic case of money laundering and should be investigated as such, he added.

"These questions need to be answered immediately. For a thorough investigation into this, I request you to order the Maharashtra Police and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate this matter at the earliest and bring out the facts before the people of Maharashtra and this country and arrest those involved in this scam," Raut said in his letter to Shah.

Taking a dig at the Union Home Minister, Raut said that under Shah's leadership, the ED has been at the forefront of investigating money laundering cases in India. The ED has developed a reputation for investigating cases in which much lesser amounts are involved, he claimed.

It may be recalled that in March 2021, the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh alleged that the then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had asked him to collect Rs 100 crore and give it to him every month. This was a mere allegation by Param Bir Singh without any proof whatsoever; despite that, the ED got involved with much alacrity and even arrested Deshmukh, Raut said.

"As compared to this, the revelations made by Manoj Jarange Patil are much more serious because he has provided clear and undeniable proof in the form of an audio clip, and the amount is significantly huge as well," he added.

The BJP on Saturday alleged that Raut had created the fake clip using AI to push Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's agenda and trigger a rift between the ruling allies.

Raut subsequently claimed that a BJP MLC leaked the audio clip, a result of the "cut-throat competition" within the saffron party.

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Jarange, who has denied that he received any money, said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde must go to the root of the controversy.

Alleging a plot against him, Jarange said "party funds" were used in efforts to defame him and the Maratha quota agitation.