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Kerala Life Mission scam: ED arrests Unitac Builders MD Santhosh Eapen

Out of the Rs 20 crore received from the Red Crescent, a voluntary organization in the UAE, Santhosh Eapen allegedly distributed about Rs 4.5 crore as commission to various officials.

Kerala Life Mission scam: ED arrests Unitac Builders MD Santhosh Eapen ANR
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First Published Mar 21, 2023, 11:09 AM IST

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday night arrested Santhosh Eapen, Managing Director of Unitac Builders, for alleged FERA violations in the Life Mission Scam case. He will be produced in the Kochi court on Tuesday. He was given the contract for the LIFE Mission Housing Project in Thrissur's Wadakanchery. 

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Out of the Rs 20 crore received from the Red Crescent, a voluntary organization in the UAE, Santhosh Eapen allegedly distributed about Rs 4.5 crore as commission to various officials. He had revealed in a statement to the probe team that Indian money was exchanged with US Dollars with the help of some bank officials. It was then directly handed over to Khalid Showkri, a former accountant in the Thiruvananthapuram UAE consulate. 

Eapen told ED officials that dollars were given to the consulate official as per the direction of the high-profile gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh, PS Sarith and Sandeep Nair. In connection with the same case, the ED arrested the former principal secretary to the Kerala CMO, M Sivasankar, last month. 

Red Crescent had offered Rs 20 crore as aid for the rehabilitation of victims of the 2018 floods. It was then diverted to Life Mission Scheme at Wadakkanchery, allegedly at the behest of Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh, who was the executive secretary at the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The LIFE Mission is the mission of the Government of Kerala to build free houses for all the homeless in Kerala. LIFE  mission scheme envisages a comprehensive housing scheme for all the landless and homeless in the State. The aim is to build 500 sq. ft houses costing Rs. 4 lakh each, for which the state has tweaked the Union government’s housing programme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

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