Life Mission deal was a conspiracy to swindle money from poor: CBI

Kochi: The Life Mission deal was a conspiracy to swindle money from the poor and it violated the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, the CBI has alleged in the High Court.

The CBI’s lawyer said that former principal secretary to the chief minister M Sivasankar had hijacked the memorandum of understanding with the help of smugglers and then got the money transferred with the help of Santosh Eapen, the owner of Unitac that got the construction contract for the Wadakkanchery project. Stating that this had become clear during the CBI’s investigation, the lawyer then read out the statement Santosh Eapen had given to the agency.

The High Court was hearing the petitions filed by Life Mission and Unitac's owner opposing CBI investigation in the Life Mission project. Justice V G Arun reserved the verdict on the petitions.

The state government argued that the CBI does not have the authority to investigate the case. There has been no violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act in the case, which is already under investigation by the Vigilance Department, it said.

Sivasankar facilitated the scam: CBI

The CBI said that Santosh Eapen met Sivasankar at his office. Sivasankar then introduced him to Life Mission CEO U V Jose and Geethu, a Life Mission official. He then directed Jose and Geethu to provide all assistance to the company for the construction work it was doing. Jose and Geethu said they will inform the Wadakkanchery municipality and the Thrissur collectorate office about the construction.

Sivasankar appears before Customs

M Sivasankar on Friday appeared before the Customs, investigating the Trivandrum airport diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case.

Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate probing the case had interrogated Sivasankar twice earlier after his alleged links with Swapna Suresh, prime accused in the gold smuggling, surfaced.

Government’s arguments

This is what the government told the high court:

• Life Mission has not received any money

• Corruption and bribery cases are the subject of vigilance investigation. Once the state has initiated a vigilance investigation and an FIR has been registered, the CBI cannot conduct an investigation without special permission from the state. This would undermine the federal system.

• The case is politically motivated. The government is being dragged into it unnecessarily.

The CBI’s arguments

The CBI has the power to investigate the case as per the 2017 notification of the state government.

The claim that Unitac was awarded the contract for the Wadakkanchery Life Mission project through a tender process is a lie.

After learning about the contract, the first meeting held by Unitac officials headed by project head was with Sandeep Nair. They later met Sarith and Swapna Suresh.

Swapna, Sandip and Sarith demanded 30% of the project cost as commission.

Vigilance probe to block CBI: Mullappally

KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran has asked whether the vigilance probe was expedited to sabotage a CBI investigation into the Life Mission case.

There is mystery behind Habitat's withdrawal from the project. Habitat’s chairman had said that the company was deliberately removed, he pointed out.

The government's move to appoint IAS officer Sriram Venkataraman, the first accused in the case related to the death of journalist KM Basheer in a car accident, as a member of the committee to find fake news is reprehensible. Mullappally said that Sriram had destroyed the evidence related to Basheer's death and had made contradictory statements.