A week after the arrest of Kerala chief minister Pinarati Vijayan’s principal secretary M Sivasankar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday summoned the CM’s additional private secretary C M Raveendran in connection with the ongoing investigation into the alleged kickbacks in the state government’s Life Mission project.
The ED has directed Raveendran to appear in its Kochi office on Monday (February 27), people close to the central agency said.
Last week, a purported chat between Raveendran and Swapna Suresh, main accused in the gold smuggling and Life Mission cases, surfaced, suggesting that the duo was allegedly in touch and shared advices. HT could not verify the authenticity of these chats.
Raveendran is known to be close to the chief minister and he was retained in Vijayan’s second term despite some charges against him.
People quoted above said the central agency has got some definite leads in the case after questioning Sivasankar and former Life Mission director U V Jose. Arrested on February 14, Sivasankar is still in the custody of the ED.
In one of the WahtsApp conversations Sivasankar reportedly told Swapna Suresh to approach Raveendran for more details of the project. Raveendran was grilled by the agency in 2020 over money laundering charges in connection with the gold smuggling case. He appeared before ED after three rounds of summons and got admitted to the hospital twice.
The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) had distanced itself from Raveendran.
“Let the ED question anyone including Raveendran, we have no problem,” party state secretary M V Govindan said a couple of days ago, adding that the central agencies cannot come near the CM.
The Life Mission project case pertains to money laundering charges in a housing project in Vadakancherry in Thrissur district funded by international aid agency “Red Crescent” to build free flats for flood victims in 2019. The deal was clinched through some officials of the UAE consulate in the state Capital, Thiruvananthapuram. Only ₹14.50 crore were spent out of ₹18.50 crore received and the remaining ₹4 crore was allegedly divided between consulate officials, state government officials and a couple of intermediaries.
The alleged kickbacks came to light when central agencies were probing the gold smuggling case in which 30 kg smuggled gold was seized from the UAE consulate in June 2020.
₹one crore cash and two kg gold were recovered from Swapna’s bank lockers in October 2020 and she reportedly told agencies that the currency was the commission received for clinching a deal with ‘Red Crescent”. She alleged that Sivasankar asked her to keep his commission money in her locker and she complied with his suggestion. But Sivasankar denied these charges saying he was implicated by the gold smuggling gangs.