IMAGE: 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab. Photograph: Rediff Archives

Key Points

• Sanjay Raut's book Unlikely Paradise (the English translation of Narkatla Swarg) details his politically motivated arrest, the workings of investigative agencies, and institutional balances.
• Raut says his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate was political due to his opposition to the BJP.
• He criticises the alleged misuse of the ED against political leaders, noting that the Supreme Court has often granted bail in such cases and passed strictures against the ED.

The conversation with Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray MP Sanjay Raut doesn't begin gently -- it arrives loaded with defiance, much like the man himself.

Fresh off the release of his English book Unlikely Paradise, Raut not just explains the book to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff but also goes beyond to explain the political happenings in the country.

Originally written in Marathi as Narkatla Swarg, the book was born out of his time behind bars -- over 100 days in jail that he describes not as silence, but as a period of observation and reckoning.

In Unlikely Paradise, he writes about what he calls a politically motivated arrest, the inner workings of investigative agencies, and the uneasy balance between institutions like the Supreme Court and the Enforcement Directorate.

The newly added chapters sharpen this critique, moving from courtroom battles to controversial narratives like the treatment of Ajmal Kasab, which Raut asserts were twisted for political mileage.

But this book is not just a prison memoir. It is also a book about perception, power, and pressure. Raut writes about leaders who, in his telling, 'broke' under the fear of jail, and contrasts them with his own refusal to bend -- even when placed in the same high-security cell once used for a terrorist. That experience, he suggests, was meant to intimidate him. It didn't.

IMAGE: Sanjay Raut with a copy of his book. Photograph: Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff

In the English version of your book, you have added four new chapters which were not in the Marathi edition. What changed in the political or institutional landscape that made you feel this update was necessary?

This book was published in Marathi six months ago as Narkatla Swarg (Hell in Paradise). Now, I have translated the same book as Unlikely Paradise in English. It has a Hindi edition too.

When you put a political leader like me in jail and when he writes a book, then obviously politics will be a part of the book.

When the ED caught me for no reason and no fault of mine, then it is obvious that my arrest was political because I have always opposed the Bharatiya Janata Party on issues. I had nothing personal against PM Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah. They were our friends once as we worked for 25 years.

IMAGE: Sanjay Raut at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

PM Modi had also wished me on X, wishing for speedy recovery after my illness.

But when I write I don't hide anything from my readers. Therefore, I felt some more chapters to my Marathi edition book were missing which I have included in this book.

The four chapters are: 'Supreme Court v/s ED', 'At the Doors of the EC and the Home of the VP', 'Salute: Kasab Gets Free Biryani' and 'Saurabh Bharadwaj's Case'. People who have read the book have liked it.

Supreme Court vs ED: A Power Struggle

Let's go chapter by chapter. In 'Supreme Court v/s ED', what does this confrontation reveal about the changing balance of power between institutions in India?

The Supreme Court of India versus ED struggle is going on for long time. Many political leaders arrested by the ED and whose bail was rejected by the lower courts or high courts were finally given bail by the Supreme Court.

On an average it takes three years for such political cases to reach the Supreme Court. It is in my case alone that a lower court gave me bail and I didn't have to approach the Supreme Court. The lower court too was shocked and wondered, what was the case against me?

The case was completely illegal against me. And I was given bail by the sessions court. But many political leaders do not get bail so soon.

Leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia, Nawab Malik, Hemant Soren or Anil Deshmukh have been given bail by the Supreme Court. And in every political case the Supreme Court has passed strictures against the ED. They twisted the ears of the ED in the case of the wrong arrest of two ministers of the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). I am thankful to the Supreme Court judges that they have protected the law.

Vice President's Unexpected Exit

In 'At the Doors of the ED and the Home of the VP', what prompted you to focus on these Constitutional offices, and what did you discover?

I have written on how the ED was misused to sack Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. The ED let it be used by the ruling government. The VP is the number two Constitutional post in India. He is working as the VP of India for two years and one day resigns suddenly.

IMAGE: Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray MPs Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Arvind Ganpat Sawant and Anil Yeshwant Desai call on then vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar, New Delhi, July 2, 2025. Jagdeep Dhankhar's wife Sudesh Dhankar was also present. Photograph: Rediff Archives

The day he resigned we had seen him sitting in Parliament House. At that time we had no inkling that Dhankhar's health was not good. Suddenly at 8 pm we get the news that Jagdeep Dhankhar has resigned due to health reasons.

Be it in any post -- President of India, prime minister or any minister too -- no one in our country will resign for health reasons. The person will sit in ICU, but will keep on working.

Nobody in India believes that Dhankhar resigned because of health reasons. Dhankhar was a healthy man and still he had to resign. I have written all these things in my book, about the rumours that spread and what led to his resignation.

Recently, Dhankhar did say he did not resign as VP due to health reasons.

Did he become partisan towards Opposition parties and therefore he was removed?

I don't think so. He is an expert on the Constitution. He was a Supreme Court lawyer too. He was a capable man. He was made governor of West Bengal. It was the BJP that made him governor and later vice president of India.

The BJP has remained silent on his unexpected exit. What, in your view, explains this?

The BJP will have to go silent on this issue. Till this date the ex-vice president of India has not got a home to stay. It is his right. but yet he has not been given a house.

Dhankhar's decision to acknowledge the Opposition-sponsored impeachment notice against Justice Yashwant Varma went against the government's apparent strategy. Why do you think that happened?

Whatever the reason but you cannot make the VP resign from his post. When the Opposition motion against Justice Yashwant Varma was moved and the VP took a stance on it, then there should have been a conversation between the government and the VP. The move should not have led to his resignation.

When you met Dhankhar, what did you observe?

Dhankhar was looking very sad. I feel Dhankhar will put everything in front of the public at the right time on what went wrong between him and the government. Dhankhar will reveal the truth and we all too want to know that.

Challenging the Kasab Narrative

The title 'Salute: Kasab Gets Free Biryani' is quite provocative. What narrative are you trying to question or challenge through this chapter?

Ujjwal Nikam is a good friend of mine and recently he has joined the Rajya Sabha too. Earlier, he used to meet me during court proceedings when I was in jail. But one point that I always wanted to know, as it was his word that Kasab was being treated with biryani in Arthur Road jail. Now, (if you think logically) who will serve biryani to Kasab in jail? Who is he? He is a terrorist.

IMAGE: From left: Ujjwal Nikam, Seema Ramdas Athawale and Ramdas Athawale during the padyatra in Mumbai's Bandra East for the Lok Sabha election, May 16, 2024. Photograph: Palashranjan Bhaumick for Rediff

But what perception was built by Ujjwal Nikam was that in Maharashtra the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party was ruling and they were treating Kasab with biryani. This narrative was built up by the BJP and they took the benefit of his statement politically. The BJP built a narrative that terrorists were being served biryani in jail by the Congress party.

Nikam was a government lawyer and what he did was to defame the government. This was not the right gesture because Nikam was hired by the government as special prosecutor to do his job and he was twisting facts. When I was in jail I was kept in the same barrack as Kasab.

Really, the same barrack as Kasab!

I have written (in my book). The barrack was made of iron and that too three layers of iron. It was a very suffocating experience for me as they put me in the same anda cell which was meant for terrorists like Kasab. Even if you bomb from the outside the prisoner inside the anda cell is safe.

And when I met the jail staffers, I asked them whether they fed biryani to Kasab. They said no and they were being maligned for no reason (by Nikam). They told me Kasab was served only jail food and not biryani. He only got the food that was written in the jail manual.

They further told me that Kasab was beaten regularly after court proceedings. And further, they filled Kasab's bottle with urine so that whenever he felt thirsty he used to drink urine. The jail officials then used to make Kasab chant 'Pakistan Murdabad'. Therefore, they too were hurt when Nikam said Kasab was fed biryani.

Defiance in the Face of Intimidation

When you look back do you feel the BJP tried to break your spirit by keeping you in the same cell as Kasab?

People do that all the time. Many politicians before going to jail break from within, and here I didn't break even after going to jail.

The BJP tries to scare you with jail term and when you are in jail they try to scare you more. They then bribe you to leave your party and here 99 percent politicians break. Some people don't break and I am one of them.

But don't you feel, kya fayda hua? (what is the use?) What did you gain because the BJP is ruling the state and Mumbai city?

For that we cannot stop fighting. We did not go to jail to win elections. People like me went to jail because in our country democracy needs to be saved.

Freedom of expression and speech needs to be protected in our country and that is the reason I went to jail.

If I am telling the truth then I want my right as an Indian citizen to speak the truth. Our Constitution says Satyameva Jayate and this should always live in our country.

Today we may lose elections but tomorrow we will win. Arvind Kejriwal too went to jail and lost elections but that does not mean he will not win next time.

Moreover, there are no fair elections happening in our country. Elections in our country have been rigged by institutions like the ED, CBI and Election Commission of India. Add to that money power which plays a very important role to win elections.

Whenever elections will be conducted on ballot paper, I will believe it is free and fair elections.

IMAGE: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde greets Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the National Democratic Alliance chief ministers and deputy chief ministers meeting, New Delhi, May 25, 2025. Photograph: Jitender Gupta/ANI Photo

But what about fact that when your close friends ditch you to join hands with the BJP, especially someone like Eknath Shinde who was a hardcore Shiv Sainik. Does it not hurt you?

Shinde was scared of getting arrested so he shook hands with the BJP. He met me two days before making his move to the BJP stating, 'I am not young to go to jail and I do not have the courage to go to jail.'

The same was told to me by Pratap Sarnaik, another leader of ours.

Ravindra Waikar, another leader, told me clearly he was not brave enough to go to jail like me. He felt his family will break as he had already broken down hearing he will go to jail if he does not shake hands with the BJP.

In short, all these leaders who joined hands with the BJP, their cases by the ED have been withdrawn. But then some people are those who fight for truth. And I am one of them.

But when you look back at the Shiv Sena's history they had street fighters who fought for Balasaheb Thackeray and his ideology. And all these leaders who joined hands with them had a history of being fighters against the ruling establishment and ready to go to jail. How come they turned out to be so weak later?

I can fight because I do not have much property in my name. My economic standing is that of a middle class family. I don't have anything to lose except my self-respect, honour and reputation.

And these people who switched sides to the BJP made thousands of crores in property by being in power. Therefore, they feared that they will lose their money too and go to jail.

I on the contrary feel that by going to jail I have shown to the world that I have not surrendered to the BJP. I have no property that they can seize and make me do things which they want to do.

The Lone Fighter?

Do you ever feel that you are the last man standing in Maharashtra taking on the BJP government? Except you and to some extent Rohit Pawar now, nobody speaks loudly enough against the current regime. Don't you feel lonely in your fight?

I don't feel lonely ever and I will never feel so in future too.

I have seen many politicians who have spoken the truth against the ruling establishment all the time single-handedly and the people of India respected their voice and opinion.

Take the example of our former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Ram Manohar Lohia or even Sonam Wangchuk now, he spoke what he had to.

Student leader Umar Khalid is still in Tihar jail because he raised his voice against the current regime. Getting regular bail is his right, but he has not got it yet. He is in jail for more than five years. I can understand that you run a case against him, but bail is the right of every individual.

Don't you feel by giving Umar Khalid's example you go against your core ideology of Hindutva as Umar is considered to be from the Left which is contrary to your party ideology?

I studied his case. I am only talking on humanity grounds. It is the BJP's agenda to do Hindu-Muslim all the time. But that does not mean you can just put in prison any Muslim or Christian because you want to run your (communal) agenda.

How many BJP people are involved in riots? How many conspiracies are they involved in? The discrimination what they are doing is very bad for the country.

In Jawaharlal Nehru University, the BJP's student wing contests elections and loses, after which they call their opponents anti-national. This is not right.

Shiv Sena-UBT's Future

After the setback in the Mumbai civic elections, how long can the Shiv Sena-UBT hold out? Will it collapse? And also the alliance with Raj Thackeray’s party, what is the future?

We lost the Mumbai civic elections narrowly. People voted in huge numbers. Shiv Sena-UBT got a good number of seats and many people told us that we will not even get 25 seats. (Shiv Sena-UBT won 65 seats).

The BJP had money bags and the system with them. They did gadbad too in many places.

IMAGE: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray with Shiv Sena-UBT Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut during a press conference to announce their alliance ahead of the municipal corporation elections, December 24, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

The only problem we faced was that Raj Thackeray's party got fewer seats (six seats). Had his party won 10 more seats the story would be different.

It was bad luck but then the coming together of Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray has benefited the Shiv Sena-UBT for sure. Nobody can deny it.

Doesn't the civic poll defeat point to the fact that the public has accepted Eknath Shinde's claim of being the real Shiv Sena?

In Mumbai Eknath Shinde's party didn't win much (29 seats).

But the BJP won in alliance with Shinde's Sena. Even here you check the BJP's tally. They won 89 seats this time and in the last civic election (2017) they had won 82 seats so there was an increment of only seven seats.

We had won 84 seats in the 2017 and are now at 65 seats. Therefore, we are almost at equal as the Congress party was fighting independently from our alliance.

Some other parties like our alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar won one seat but then the candidate went to the Shinde Sena and so were such cases with seven other candidates from smaller parties or Independents.

The ones who are in power do these things to bring smaller party and Independent candidates to their side and this is what happened in the Mumbai civic elections.

Saurabh Bharadwaj's Case: A Pattern of Resistance

In 'Saurabh Bharadwaj's Case', what makes this episode significant enough to include in your book? Does it point to a larger pattern?

ED raided his place and wanted to arrest him. And the way he dealt with them, ED officers had to go back empty-handed. He did exactly the same thing what I did. He did not get scared of them and told them to arrest him but they did not do so.

I was impressed by him and I get impressed by people who do not budge and give up in difficult times like Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Hemant Soren or Saurabh Bharadwaj.

We all will die one day, but then at least fight for what you believe in.

Are you a fighter against the government because you are a journalist or are you a born fighter?

I was born a fighter and therefore I chose the profession of journalism where my energy can be utilised (to take on powerful people). And as I age more my energy is being re-energised every day.

I was fighting with cancer last year and my life was completely destroyed that time. I fought physical battles too against cancer and I am fighting even now. I will keep on fighting physically against cancer and also against the government who wants to sell our country.

Our ancestors fought against the East India Company and now if today's government wants to sell our country the same way as the East India Company did, people like me will never allow them to do that. We will raise our voice and protest.

If we don't do that then we have no right to take the names of Bhagat Singh or Mahatma Gandhi.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the reason for me to be in journalism. He fought against the British through his pen (Kesari newspaper).

Another one was journalist Frank Moraes who was a fighter.

Remember, the one who fight the government on issues, the ruling government is always scared of them. And I believe if the ruling government is scared of people like me, then it is a moral victory for me.