KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued notice to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's Additional Private Secretary C M Raveendran to appear for interrogation in the Wadakkanchery Life Mission housing scam on Monday, days after it arrested M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of the CM in the case.
Raveendran was asked to appear before the national agency at its office in Kochi.
The case pertains to money laundering behind the Life Mission Wadakkanchery housing project which was funded by UAE Red Cresent for the flood victims in 2019.
The allegation is that a major portion of the fund was diverted as commission which ended up with former UAE Consulate General and employees, Sivasankar and the accused persons in the 2020 Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case. Sivasankar was recently arrested by ED and he is in the custody of the agency till Friday.
ED sources said that Raveendran was aware of the project and his role in the allotment of the land and selection of a construction agency Unitac Builders for the implementation of the project is being probed.
From the WhatsApp chats recovered as part of the probe, it was confirmed that Sivasankar had informed Raveendran about the project. Similarly, instructions were passed to the civic body in Wadakkanchery to clear various issues linked with the project.
ED also collected WhatsApp chats and emails of the gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh leading to suspicion of Raveendran's involvement in the housing project.
Raveendran was grilled by ED for long hours in connection with the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case in December 2020. Then ED had to issue notices four times asking him to appear for the interrogation.