KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the alleged money laundering in the LIFE Mission housing project for the poor in Wadakancherry will issue a fresh summons to C M Raveendran, the additional private secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after he failed to appear before the central agency for interrogation on Monday.
ED conducted a meeting on Monday and found the reason cited by Raveendran for keeping away from the interrogation insufficient.
It was on Sunday night, Raveendran wrote an email to the ED's Kochi unit requesting to exclude him from interrogation in wake of the ongoing Kerala Assembly session. Raveendran was also found at the Kerala Assembly premises in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
ED officials said that the ongoing Kerala Assembly cannot be a ground to put a hold on the investigation of a money laundering case. ED officials maintained that the investigation has entered its prime phase and interrogation of Raveendran is vital to proceed further. "We have decided to issue a fresh summons to him. It will be issued in the coming days. His interrogation has to be conducted soon," ED sources said.
Previously, ED had to issue four summons to Raveendran to appear for interrogation in the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case. He had cited Covid as a reason for not turning up before the probing team in December 2020. The case related to the diversion of the fund in form of a commission allocated by UAE Red Cresent for the construction of apartments for flood-affected families at Wadakkancherry in 2019. ED recently arrested the Chief Minister's former Principal Secretary M Sivasankar who is still in jail.
ED probe revealed that Raveendran was aware of the housing project. Sivasankar had communicated about the project to Raveendran. ED also unearthed WhatsApp chats of other accused Swapna Suresh and Sivasankar about the involvement of Raveendran in the project. There are six accused persons in the case.