In a great setback for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Tuesday night, arrested his former principal secretary M Sivasankar in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case about alleged fund irregularities in the state's flood relief. Sivasankar was arrested on Tuesday night.
The arrest is related to the ongoing probe in Vijayan's project, 'Life Mission' in which a huge sum of over Rs 4 crore was allegedly paid as commission to get the contract, which was admitted by the builder, Santhosh Eapen to the CBI after he was arrested.
Life Mission scheme is for providing free houses for the homeless in Kerala. The project intended to provide homes to the poor who lost their houses in the devastating floods of 2018.
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The project at Wadakkanchery in Thrissur district then came under a cloud after the then-sitting Congress legislator Anil Akkara approached the CBI alleging massive corruption.
On Monday, the central agency summoned Sivasankar to join the investigation into the matter and placed him under arrest on Tuesday night after 2 days of questioning. There are allegations that he was paid a bribe of Rs 1 crore.
"He was called by the ED to join the investigation on January 31, the day he retired from his service. Sivasankar had sought time to appear after which he was summoned to join the probe in the second week of February," the source said.
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Sivasankar allegedly helped the Unitech builder to get a contract in the life mission case. Now he will be produced before a Special PMLA court. The ED is likely to seek his two weeks' custodial remand.
Incidentally, this case surfaced after the gold smuggling case came to light in June 2020 in which Sivasankar was jailed. Sivasankar had earlier spent 100 days in jail in connection with the seizure of 30 kg of gold from a diplomatic bag meant to be delivered to the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram in 2020.
