M. Sivasankar, former principal secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the Life Mission bribe case late on Tuesday night, will be produced before the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court in a short while.
The arrest of Sivasankar, who was interrogated for over 10 hours on Tuesday, was formally recorded close to midnight.
It was after interrogating him for three consecutive days that the agency recorded his arrest. This is the second case in which the former bureaucrat is arrested by ED.
Santhosh Eapen, the managing director of the construction company which was selected for constructing the houses under the LIFE Mission project and other accused in the gold smuggling case including Swapna Suresh were grilled by the agency in the corruption case.
According to the ED case, Mr. Sivasankar and others made undue monetary gains in the form of kickbacks in awarding the contract for the construction of multi-dwelling units under the LIFE Mission housing scheme of the State government. The housing project was proposed at Vadakkanchery in Thrissur district.
Mr. Sivasankar had retired from government service on January 31.
The top bureaucrat, who was suspended from the service following his arrest in the cases, was later reinstated.
Incidentally, Mr. Sivasankaran had secured bail in the first case booked by the agency in connection with the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case. The previous case against Sivasankar was that the nearly Rs.1 crore that was found in the bank locker of Swapna Suresh, another accused in the gold and dollar smuggling cases, was the profit made out of smuggling gold to the country.
Both cases were booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
He was also arraigned as an accused in the U.S. dollar smuggling case booked by Customs.
The allegations of corruption regarding the project had rocked the CPI (M) and the previous LDF government. The party and the government had a tough time fighting the Opposition, which had highlighted the alleged corruption case during the previous Assembly polls.
