KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued its interrogation of M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in the LIFE Mission case at its office here on Thursday. The agency summoned his chartered accountant P Venugopal to the office.
Sivasankar, who was arrested on Tuesday night, has been remanded in ED custody till Monday. The ED's case has been registered on the basis of CBI and vigilance bureau FIRs for suspected pecuniary advantage obtained by some persons from the LIFE Mission project and illegal gratifications allegedly obtained by various people, including public servants.
The ED on Thursday claimed that it had to arrest Sivasankar as he refused to cooperate and was evasive in his replies when the agency officials confronted him with evidences of him allegedly receiving bribes in the project. “Life Mission team and the representatives of Red Crescent signed the MoU on July 11, 2019 in the presence of the then CM, besides Sivasankar, UAE Consul General and other department secretaries,” it said.
A conspiracy was hatched by a Consulate employee Swapna Sureshwith connivance of Sandeep and Sarith and active support of Sivasankar to generate commission as bribe from the funds donated by Red Crescent by awarding the LIFE Mission project to Unitac Builders and Developers Pvt Ltd and Sane Ventures LLP run by Santhosh Eappen,” the ED has said.
It was alleged that a commission of Rs 4.5 crore was given to middlemen, including state representatives and government officials, out of the funds received from the UAEbased charitable organisation Red Crescent meant for flood-affected persons.
As per the remand report filed by ED, bank statements revealed that Rs 5.25 crore and Rs 2.25 crore were transferred from Red Crescent to Federal Bank and Axis bank respectively on August 1, 2019. The same amount was subsequently withdrawn by Eappen and handed over as an upfront commission for allocating the contract to him.
The report relies on a WhatsApp message sent by Sivasankar to Swapna the day before, on July 31, 2019, to make the case against him. “Swapna: So, everything will be clean and clear. Sivashankar: Just be very careful. They will say that the local arrangement was done by you. Take care dear,” it says.
The ED said in another WhatsApp message to Swapna, Sivasankar asked her not to get involved and warned her that if something went wrong, they would put blame on her. In another message quoted in the remand report, with a time stamp of July 6, 2019, Sivasankar says: “CM had asked me to get u a job. But that will be low profile; though the salary will be double (sic).”
Sivasankar has responded to ED on the said message that he was trying to console Swapna who was worried about losing her job.
The agency had questioned the chartered accountant many times during the investigation of the money laundering aspect of the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case.
Its primary chargesheet said Sivasankar had admitted to facilitating Swapna Suresh to open a bank account jointly with his chartered accountant.
The remand report on Wednesday alleged that the locker was opened by Swapna to handle the proceeds of crime and the CA assisted her in opening the locker under the direction of Sivasankar. The ED said Sivasankar was evasive while responding to questions on these.
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