Kochi – The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested former Principal Secretary M. Sivashankar in the Life Mission Housing Project corruption case at 11.45 last night. The arrest was made after 3 consecutive days of questioning. With this, this is the third arrest of Shivashankar in cases related to diplomatic parcel gold smuggling.
Sivashankar retired from service on 31st. Sivashankar was interrogated at ED’s Kochi office on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. The ED has registered the arrest in the cases of black money transaction related to gold smuggling, dollar smuggling and now the bribery transaction in the Life Mission case. The CBI has also charged Sivashankar under the Foreign Exchange Prohibition Act. NIA is the only central agency that investigated the gold smuggling case and did not make Shivashankar an accused. The investigation team said that Sivashankar will be produced in the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court this morning after medical tests.
Swapna’s statement that Rs 1 crore found in a bank locker jointly owned by Sivashankar’s private chartered accountant and Swapna was a bribe for Sivashankar was the reason why ED made Sivashankar an accused in the case. Sivashankar has been arrested in connection with the construction of a residential complex in Vadakanchery with the cooperation of the UAE and the ED is re-investigating it in the case of bribery worth crores of rupees.
Sivashankar was interrogated again after the statements of Swapna Suresh, PS Sarith, Sandeep Nair and Santhosh Eepan were recorded in detail. Swapna Suresh’s allegation is that a bribery transaction of Rs 6 crore was made as part of the project. Santhosh Eepan, the owner of Unitac who won the construction contract, has revealed that he paid a bribe of Rs 4 crore 48 lakh to get the Life Mission contract.
English Summary: M Sivasankar arrested in life mission case