Following allegations from Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut that hotelier Jitendra Navlani served as a go-between for some Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials and collected money from establishments to shield them from investigation by the anti-money laundering agency, a special court on Wednesday closed the case against Navlani.
To end the case against the South Mumbai businessman, additional prosecutor Ramesh Siroya filed a C-summary report, which additional sessions judge AA Nandgaonkar accepted on Wednesday. The police write a C-summary report, sometimes referred to as a closure report, when they determine that there is insufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.
Sanjay Raut filed a complaint against Navlani on March 8, 2022, alleging that Navlani and three other ED officials were involved in an extortion scheme that targeted businessmen in the state and city, promising them protection from ED investigations in exchange for money.
In this network, Jitendra Chandralal Navlani is a prominent figure. More than one hundred builders have contributed money to his seven businesses. The corporations that were the subject of an ED investigation moved the funds to these seven businesses. Raut had said that “Navlani works for senior ED officials, including directors and joint directors.”
Raut had stated, as an example, that the ED had looked into Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. in 2017. Navlani’s seven companies received a transfer of ₹25 crore from Dewan Housing Finance. Documents indicated that an additional ₹15 crore was transferred to Navlani’s enterprises up until March 31, 2020.
On May 5, 2022, the ACB filed a case under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (taking gratification, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public personnel) against Navlani and “unknown others.”
After Raut claimed to have “exposed the biggest corruption by ED officials” and detailed 70 bank transactions totaling ₹58.93 crores remitted to bank accounts affiliated with Navlani, Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary Arvind Bhosle filed a formal complaint, which led to the registration of the FIR.
Bhosale did not identify any particular ED officials in his letter to the commissioner of police in Mumbai. The hotelier’s name was provided in the letter, which otherwise just said, “Unknown personnel of the Enforcement Directorate of the Western region.”
The ACB filed a C-summary report in January 2023 in an attempt to close the case, stating that the police’s investigation revealed the charges to be neither accurate nor incorrect. The ACB had requested that the matter be closed, claiming that they could not discover any evidence to support Raut’s accusations.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Harshal Chavan of the ACB found in his closure report that, between 2015 and 2021, Navlani’s companies received ₹58.96 crore from 39 businesses/business establishments. However, the transactions were part of the regular business between the hotelier’s companies. He went on to say that the claims that he received these sums as bribe money for ED officers to keep them quiet about the enterprises were baseless.
