Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha writes to ED, will appear before it on January 5

Varsha Raut, the wife of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who had skipped the questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday, December 29, has asked for an adjournment of the latest summons and has sought a fresh date of January 5 for appearing before the central probe agency in Mumbai.

The ED wants to question Varsha Raut with regard to a transaction of about ₹55 lakhs with the wife of a person who is accused in the PMC Bank alleged fraud case.

ED sources had said that it was the third summons issued to her after she skipped two earlier ones on health grounds, they said. The summons for questioning were issued to her under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Sanjay Raut, while holding a press conference in Mumbai on Monday, December 28 had denied any wrongdoing on the part of his wife and said they have been in correspondence with the probe agency in connection with the case for about one-and-a-half months.

Sanjay Raut had alleged that central agencies were being used to "destabilise" the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra. The Sena spokesperson also listed the names of other state leaders, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who were sent notices by the agency.

The Shiv Sena workers had on Monday, December 28, put up banner outside the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office addressing it as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state office.

Read More: Shiv Sena puts up banner outside ED office calling it ‘BJP state office’

Earlier, Sanjay Raut had said regarding the summon by the investigative agency that targeting women of a household was an act of cowardice. "We are not scared of anyone and will respond accordingly," Raut had told reporters.

In September last year, the RBI had capped the withdrawal limit and restricted the activities of the PMC Bank after an alleged fraud of ₹4,355 crores came to light. The ED had later seized and identified movable and immovable assets worth more than ₹3,830 crores owned by Housing Development Infrastructures Ltd (HDIL) in connection with the case.