On February 15, 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested M Sivasankar, the principal secretary to the Kerela Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his involvement in the Life Mission Scam. He was taken to the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court.
According to sources, he was called for questioning by the agency on February 14, 2023.
Under the Life Mission Project, the UAE Red Crescent, which is affiliated with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, agreed to provide 10 million UAE dirhams for constructing housing units for the victims of the Kerala flood in 2018, and a health centre.
For this, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was entered into on July 11, 2019, between the UAE Red Crescent Authority and the Government of Kerala through the chief executive officer of LIFE Mission.
The housing project was proposed at Wadkancherry in Thrissur district.
The project intended to build houses for 140 families in Wadkancherry by spending Rs 14.50 crore out of Rs 18.50 crore granted by the Red Crescent via the UAE consulate. The contract noted the construction of a health care centre using the remaining amount.
The ED claims that Sivasankar and others made undue monetary gains in the form of kickbacks in awarding the contract for the construction of the houses under the LIFE Mission scheme.
The ED told the Kochi Court that out of the 36 projects, the tenders of the 26 of them were given only to two companies. Sivasankar revealed and divulged confidential details to his aide Swapna Suresh.
She used this information to earn crores of rupees. During her interrogation, she said that the entire benefit of the bribery was taken by Sivasankar.
A Kerela Based construction company called UNITAC Builders were given the construction contract.
Santhosh Eapan, the managing director of UNITAC, the construction firm selected for construction of the houses under the LIFE Mission project had informed ED that the accused in the case including Swapna Suresh had received a bribe worth Rs 4.48 crore for the project
Other accused in the case- Swapna Suresh and Sarith PS – have alleged that Sivasankar had a role in this. Sivasankar retired from service in January this year.
The former bureaucrat was arrested by the Customs Department in October 2020 on charges of smuggling gold from Dubai using the diplomatic channel.
It had come to light after 30 kg of gold worth Rs 14.82 crore smuggled in a consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage was busted by the Customs in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5, 2019. He was released on bail later.
