Life Mission scam: ED chargesheet names M Sivasankar as first accused, Swapna Suresh second
The ED filed the chargesheet in a special court in Kochi.
FollowKochi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday submitted the final chargesheet in the Life Mission scam case and named M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary to Chief Minister, as the first accused. The ED filed the chargesheet in a special court in Kochi. The chargesheet also names Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the high-profile gold smuggling case, as the second accused.
According to the findings of ED, M Sivasankar is the mastermind behind Life Mission's black money transactions. It is alleged that Sivasankar violated the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act in the Life Mission project. The ED has arrested only Sivasankar and Unitac Builders MD Santhosh Eapen in the case.
The charge sheet has exempted all other accused from arrest.
After examining the chargesheet, the special court will send summons to the accused including Swapna Suresh. The High Court had earlier asked why Swapna Suresh was not arrested in the case.
According to the report, the ED has now filed a charge sheet against a total of 11 accused including Sarith Nair and Sandeep, accused in the gold smuggling case. Santhosh Eapen is the seventh accused.
Sivasankar reportedly received the bribe and deposited the amount in the bank account of Swapna Suresh.
A home project in Wadakkanchery, Thrissur, was funded by the UAE-based charitable organization Red Crescent as part of the Life Mission Project. The ED discovered that the aid contained FERA violations and that Eappen had reportedly paid middlemen—including allegedly state lawmakers and government officials—a payment of Rs 4.5 crore in order to have his company selected for the construction project.
Red Crescent had offered Rs 20 crore as aid for the rehabilitation of victims of the 2018 floods, and it was alleged that the external financial assistance was diverted to Life Mission Scheme at Wadakkanchery, allegedly at the behest of Sivasankar, who was then principal secretary to the CM, and Swapna Suresh, who was the executive secretary at the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
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