KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation probing the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) violations in the LIFE Mission project scam on Friday presented the case diary in a sealed cover in the Kerala High Court. The CBI had earlier sought permission to produce the case diary for the court’s examination before it passes its verdict on the petitions filed by the state government and Santhosh Eappen, MD of Unitac Builders, seeking to quash the FIR registered by the agency.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Anil Akkara filed a counter affidavit opposing the petition. The affidavit stated that the UAE Consulate has no authority to float tenders for works on behalf of the UAE Red Crescent Authority for construction of the apartment complex and health centre at Wadakkanchery agreed to be constructed with the Red Crescent’s financial aid for LIFE Mission.
Unitac had claimed in the writ petition that the company participated in a tender floated by the UAE Consulate and the two agreements were executed after meeting the authority in person. Eappen’s contention that Unitac Builders and Sane Ventures received payments from the fund provided by the Red Crescent on August 1, 2019 and August 2, 2019 reveals that the amounts were received the next day after the agreement was signed. These payments cannot be stated to be in lieu of any services rendered by the two companies to the consulate or Red Crescent.
Akkara said Eappen’s claim in the plea that Rs 3.80 crore of the payments received by the companies were paid to UAE Consulate official Khalid was not true and it was cooked up to cover up the illegal transactions made by the companies with the foreign contribution received by it. The alleged payment made by the firms to ISOMONK Trading Company is violative of the FCRA provisions, he said.
The allegation in the petition that one of the iPhones purchased by the petitioner as demanded by Swapna Suresh, key accused in the gold smuggling case, was presented to Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala was politically motivated and unconnected with the subject matter of the petition, he added.