ED grills Kerala CM's additional private secretary Raveendran in LIFE Mission scam
KOCHI: Chief Minister’s additional private secretary CM Raveendran was questioned for nine hours by the financial crime-fighting agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in connection with money laundering in the Wadakancherry Life Mission case.
The key man in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO),Raveendran appeared at the ED office in Kochi at around 9.45 am responding to the second summons from the national agency.
The corruption case pertains to the diversion of Rs 3 crore from Rs 20 crore donated by the UAE-based Red Crescent for a housing project for the poor in 2019.
ED decided to question the additional private secretary of Pinarayi Vijayan after the probe by the agency revealed that Raveendran was familiar with the housing project at Wadakancherry in Thrissur district.
The interrogation supervised by ED Kochi Zonal additional director Dinesh Paruchhuri began at around 10:30am and continued till 8.15pm. Sources said that the agency has asked Raveendran to produce documents to substantiate his statement given during the interrogation. ED is also investigating whether the chief minister’s office was directly involved in the project. Another accused in the case, Swapna Suresh, had given a statement to ED that chief minister’s office facilitated the project.
ED has in its possession several WhatsApp chats between accused Swapna, former principal secretary M Sivasankar, and Raveendran discussing the project. Sivasankar was arrested by ED and he is currently lodged at Ernakulam District Jail in Kakkanad.