CM Raveendran, Additional Private Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, left the Enforcement Directorate office in Kochi at 8 pm on Tuesday after being questioned by the agency in the Life Mission Vadakkanchery bribery case. , photo credit: RK Nitin
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued questioning of CM Raveendran, Additional Private Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, for the second day today. money laundering case A case was registered in connection with the alleged commission paid to the government’s LIFE Mission housing project at Wadakkanchery, Thrissur.
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The agency had questioned him for over nine hours on Tuesday. Mr. Raveendran had reached the office At the agency’s place on Wednesday at around eight o’clock. He was asked to come for the second consecutive day as the probe team wanted to collect more information from him on alleged payments made in awarding the contract for the Life Mission project. The agency had registered a money laundering case against the accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Mr Raveendran had failed to appear before the agency on February 27 for enquiry, stating that the State Assembly was in session. The agency had issued a second summon on March 1. He was asked to appear on March 7. The ED had earlier questioned him in connection with a money-laundering case registered after the Diplomatic Channel gold smuggling case.
The probe agency had earlier arrested M. Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in the case. Mr. Shivshankar is currently in judicial custody.
According to the probe agency, the matter is that a huge amount was embezzled as commission from funds released by a foreign organization for a housing project. The agency argued that the money found in the bank locker of Swapna Suresh, another accused in the money laundering case, was part of the commission that the accused had received.