The Enforcement Directorate arrested M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Wednesday in connection to a money laundering investigation into the state government’s LIFE Mission project, reported The Indian Express.
He was called for questioning by the central investigating agency on Tuesday, and was later put under house arrest for non-cooperation, sources told IE.
The ED case is based on a First Information Report (FIR) by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) where it alleged that the Life Mission project was funded by foreign entity in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulations) Act. The state government has moved the Supreme Court against the case contending that the government projects are not covered under the FCRA.
The former bureaucrat had retired on January 31.
Sivasankar was earlier arrested in 2020 in a gold smuggling case involving diplomatic baggage to the UAE consulate. His alleged close aide Swapna Suresh was also arrested.
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 Kerala flood victims and also a health centre. For this purpose, an MoU was signed between the UAE Red Crescent Authority and the Government of Kerala on July 11, 2019, through the CEO of LIFE Mission.
When the case ran into a controversy, Congress MLA Anil Aikkara had lodged a complaint based on which the CBI had filed an FIR.