The Enforcement Directorate has arrested M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in connection with the Life Mission case. The arrest came at night after day-long questioning on Tuesday.
The case relates to an alleged scam in the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment Mission, popularly known as LIFE Mission, one of the flagship projects of the ruling Left-front government aimed at providing low-cost housing to homeless people.
The ED has alleged that tainted money was parked in the project, kickbacks received and confidential details of the bidders leaked to favour a certain builder who was awarded the project under the government scheme even as there was a gross violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
The arrest comes several months after a bitter political and legal battle was mounted by the Kerala government to stop the ED and CBI from investigating cases in the state by withdrawing the general consent to the CBI and approaching the court against the action by central agencies.
However, the ED invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after it found misappropriation of funds in the Life Mission project that had links with the accused in the 2020 Kerala gold smuggling case, which opened the doors for further investigation. During the probe, the ED found alleged kickbacks were paid to the main accused of the Gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh and her associates by a builder who had bagged a contract in the Life Mission project. The ED has alleged this happened with the active knowledge of Sivasanker.
The second allegation against Sivasankar is leaking confidential information about prospective bidders for the Life Mission project to Swapna who allegedly confessed to having received the alleged kickbacks for facilitating the contract to Unitach, which was awarded the project under the government scheme.
The ED accessed hundreds of WhatsApp chats between Sivasankar and Swapna in April 2018 and July 2020 where the former allegedly shared information about prospective bidders and quotations under the Life Mission project. It was found during the investigation that 26 out of 36 projects went to those whose names were mentioned by the former principal secretary even before the tender was opened.
According to sources, there is corroborative evidence with the ED of kickbacks received by Swapna and the latter confessed to receiving it.
What has given a shot in the arm to the ED probe in the Life Mission case is section 23 of the PMLA which empowers the ED to probe the entire project and related monetary transactions. It says,'' where money laundering involves two or more interconnected transactions and one or more such transactions are proved to be involved in money laundering, then for the purpose of adjudication or confiscation, be presumed that the remaining transactions form part of such interconnected transactions.''
In 2020, Sivasankar was arrested by ED after it found material and digital evidence of his direct role in allegedly assisting Swapna in parking the tainted money into the regular financial system. ED officials claimed there was evidence to show that Sivasankar introduced Swapna to his chartered accountant, known to him for more than 20 years, asking him to help her with her finances. According to investigators, the chartered accountant and Swapna opened a joint locker at the SBI branch in Trivandrum and a sum of Rs 34 lakh was deposited by Swapna.
The routing of this money into the regular financial system was investigated by the ED as proceeds of crime. The ED also maintained that any probe into the alleged kickbacks was not meant to stall the project and the state government should cooperate.
It may be recalled that after launching its vigilance probe against Sivasanker, the LDF government withdrew the general consent to CBI to investigate cases in the state. The chief minister has alleged that the CBI's move to probe Life Mission officials on the charge of violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act was an attempt to use central agencies to destabilise the Left government.
