A LIFE MISSION GONE WRONG
It was an unceremonious exit with no fanfare or mentions of his contributions to the service. M. Sivasankar, who was principal secretary to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan during his first term, retired from service on January 31. On February 14, he was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)—his third arrest since the scam about alleged gold smuggling via diplomatic baggage broke in 2020. This time, it was over allegations that he had received kickbacks in one of the government’s Life Mission scheme projects, where low-cost houses were to be built for the 2018 flood victims.
The arrest comes in the wake of new revelations by former UAE consulate worker Swapna Suresh, one of the prime accused in the gold smuggling case. Based on the interrogation of Sivasankar and Swapna’s auditor Venugopal, ED sources say C.M. Raveendran, the current additional private secretary to the CM, will get a call next.
The case is built on allegations surrounding a Life Mission project in Wadakkanchery in Thrissur district for 140 low-cost houses with a Rs 18.5 crore grant from international agency Red Crescent Authority via the UAE consulate. The ED filed an affidavit in the Ernakulam district sessions court on February 19 alleging money laundering and saying Sivasankar was not cooperating. Incidentally, the ED case is based on an FIR by investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from back in 2019. The CBI’s complaint then was that Red Crescent, a subsidiary of the International Red
Cross, was a foreign entity and had violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) when, in 2019, it transferred 10 million UAE dirhams (about Rs 22.5 crore at the current exchange rate) that had been donated by the consulate to the Kerala government for the Life Mission project. This was after the Centre denied Kerala’s request that it be allowed to accept funds from foreign governments to rebuild the state after the floods. The ED chargesheet now alleges that Unitac Builders, which was awarded the housing contract, paid some Rs 4.48 crore in bribes to Sivasankar and Swapna to bag the project.
Sivasankar had a sterling career till he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the gold smuggling case and jailed for 98 days. The media uproar over his involvement with the 42-year-old Swapna, and the leaking of WhatsApp chats linking them to the state government became a huge source of embarrassment for CM Pinarayi in 2020. But despite a high-voltage campaign by the opposition targeting the CM, Pinarayi led the Left Democratic Front to a consecutive win in the 2021 assembly poll, and that too with a thumping majority.
Now the case has come back to bite the government. “The records and statements suggest that there were irregularities in awarding the projects. We have to ascertain more facts...,” a senior ED official told
The agency has already grilled U.V. Jose, ex-CEO of the Life Mission project. The chargesheet mentions six people, including Sivasankar.
A senior government official, though, feels the ED is still fishing and may not have much of a case. “The ED’s claims are based on social media chats between Swapna and Raveendran, which were leaked to the media. But the chats do not reveal any substantial evidence against him. He has previously given statements to agencies investigating the case on two occasions,” says the official.
The CM is aware of the consequences if ED arrests his close aide, Raveendran. As it is, the investigation has stalled progress on the Life Mission project, one that is close to Pinarayi’s heart and has given him the maximum mileage as a CM. The question is, will it now seed the beginning of his downfall? ■
SIVASANKAR’S ARREST IN THE ‘LIFE MISSION’ CASE HAS ALREADY STALLED A PROJECT WHICH IS CLOSE TO CM PINARAYI’S HEART