NEW DELHI, Feb 15: The Enforcement Directorate has placed under arrest M. Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister, after he was allegedly found guilty of the offence of money laundering by concealing the proceeds of crime, its possession and acquisition in the LIFE Mission bribery case.
Explaining the grounds for arresting Mr. Sivasankar, the agency said on Wednesday that the analysis of material evidence gathered in the case including digital evidence such as Whatsapp conversations, the IMEI Number of a mobile phone in his possession and the statements collected had established that he had committed the offence of money laundering as defined under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency noted that a huge amount of money collected for constructing homes for the flood victims was siphoned off as an upfront commission for the allocation of the project contract.
Though given ample opportunities to reveal and cooperate with the investigation to unravel the complete modus of laundering the proceeds of crime, Mr. Sivasankar didn’t cooperate with the investigation. He wilfully refused to cooperate with the investigation by either evading the query or giving misleading and evasive replies, the agency noted.
The material evidence collected in the case including the Whatsapp conversations between Mr. Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh indicated that the contract for the construction of houses under LIFE Mission projects in Vadakkanchery was fixed for Unitac Builders and Developers run by Santhosh Eappen. Ms. Suresh had admitted that a bribe was demanded and Unitac Builders agreed to pay it before the execution of the project, according to the agency.
It was clear that Mr. Sivasankar had an interest in the upfront commission earned from Unitac Builders and Mr. Eappen paid the commission to the officials concerned. The builder had also presented an iPhone to Mr. Sivasankar, according to the agency.
The accused was impeding the investigation in the case by not disclosing the facts, which were in his exclusive knowledge. His custodial interrogation was required to understand the modus of laundering the proceeds of crime, it submitted.
(Manas Dasgupta)