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 following 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 following 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, which led the ED to include Sivashankar as an accused in the case. The ED has arrested Sivashankar in connection with the construction of a residential complex in Vadakanchery with the cooperation of the UAE.
Sivashankar was interrogated once more following recording the statements of Swapna Suresh, PS Sarith, Sandeep Nair and Santhosh Eepan, the accused in the case. 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