Four days after he was made the fifth accused by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case related to gold smuggling, the former principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M Sivasankar, has been included as the fifth accused in the case related to the irregularities of the Wadakkancherry Life Mission project.
What is significant is, Sivasankar has been made an accused by a state government agency, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Apart from Sivasankar, who is now in the custody of ED, Swapna Suresh, Sarith and Sandeep Nair have also been arraigned as the sixth, seventh and eighth accused in the report the VACB has submitted before the Special Court in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
Till now, the VACB had not included any specific names in the list of accused. The Vigilance first information report (FIR) had only the names of the construction company (Unitac Builders), the government agency (Life Mission) and some government officials whose names were not known or revealed.
The case is that Swapna Suresh, Sarith and Sandeep Nair had used their clout within the UAE Consulate and conspired with government officials to secure for Unitac Builders the deal to construct the Life Mission flats at Wadkkancherry and, in the process, had pocketed a commission of nearly Rs 4.5 crore.
Sivasankar has now been included as an accused after it came to light that he possessed one of the many iPhones that Unitac MD Santhosh Eapen had purchased at the request of Swapna Suresh. These phones were supposed to be distributed as 'lucky draw' gifts during the UAE national day celebrations held on December 2, 2019.
It is suspected that some of these phones were given to influential people for official favours. The iPhone now used by Sivasankar, which costs nearly a lakh, is now considered by the Vigilance as a bribe. Now, if a senior government official had taken a bribe for the deal, this would strengthen the CBI charge that there was violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), and could successfully argue in the High Court to get the stay on its probe into the Life Mission project lifted.
Even earlier, while questioning Unitac MD Santhosh Eapen, the Vigilance had clinching evidence of Sivasankar's role in granting the project to Unitac. Sources said that the interrogation of Sarith had also thrown up some clues to link Sivasankar to the Unitac deal.
Life Mission CEO U V Jose had also gone on record saying that Sivasankar, who was his predecessor, had favoured Unitac.
On Monday, as this report is being filed, the Vigilance team is questioning Swapna Suresh in connection with the commission she had allegedly received as part of the Wadakkancherry Life Mission project. The Vigilance is interrogating Swapna for the first time. She will be asked about Sivasankar's role, and also the motive behind the 'gifts' Sivasankar and others had received in the name of the UAE national day.
