Kerala Gold Smuggling: ED focus on flagship schemes of Kerala CM’s office

New Delhi, Nov 03: The focus would be on the office of the Kerala Chief Minister in the Kerala Gold Smuggling case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is tracking alleged payoffs of Rs 4 crore in the CM's Life Mission project. This is a housing scheme for those displaced by the floods. Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan's former principal secretary, M Sivasankar who was arrested by the ED is being questioned on the alleged bribes received in the project. He is also being questioned about the contract that was awarded to the Kochi based Unitac builders, sources have told OneIndia.

The ED has been tracking messages between Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh on the day Unitac Builders got a contract for a housing project under the Life Mission. This has been collected as evidence by the ED.

Suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar arrested in connection with the Kerala Gold Smuggling case was remanded in Enforcement Directorate custody for a week.

He was was on Wednesday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.

The former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was arrested after around six hours of interrogation by the ED, probing the money trail in the case.

Soon after the Kerala High Court rejected his anticipatory bail applications, a team of ED officials reached an Ayurveda hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, where Sivasankar was undergoing treatment, and took him into custody. He was later brought in a car to the ED office here for interrogation.