KOCHI: In a move that can have political ramifications, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued notice to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Additional Private Secretary CM Raveendran to appear for interrogation in the Wadakkanchery LIFE Mission housing scam on Monday. This comes just over a week after ED arrested M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of the chief minister, in the same case.
Raveendran has been asked to appear before the national agency at its office in Kochi. The case pertains to allegations of money laundering linked to the LIFE Mission Wadakkanchery housing project, which was funded by UAE’s 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.
Sources with the ED said Raveendran was aware of the project, and his role in the allotment of the land and selection of construction company 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 conversations and emails of the gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh leading to suspicion of Raveendran’s involvement in the housing project.
Raveendran was previously grilled by the ED in connection with the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case in December 2020. At that time, he appeared before the ED only after he was issued four notices.