Kochi: Venugopal Iyer, a chartered accountant and a close aide of M Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Life Mission bribery case on Friday.
The court, on Wednesday, had granted Sivasankar's five-day custody to the central agency.
Former IAS officer Sivasankar, who had retired on January 31, was arrested close to midnight on Tuesday by the probe agency in connection with a prevention of money laundering case pertaining to alleged fund irregularities in Kerala flood relief.
The arrest is related to the ongoing probe in 'Life Mission' project- intended to provide homes to the poor who lost their houses in the devastating floods of 2018. An amount of Rs 4 crore was allegedly paid as commission to get a contract, as builder Santhosh Eapen told the CBI after he was arrested.
Earlier, the ED had recovered Rs 1 crore in cash from a locker in the name of prime accused in the gold smuggling case and also in the Life Mission case- Swapna Suresh.
The locker is allegedly in the names of Swapna and Venugopal. In its first round of questioning, Iyer had admitted to have a locker but Sivasankar continues to deny having any knowledge about it.
Iyer and Sivasankar will be jointly questioned over the locker ownership and will be a big revelation if the ED is able to substantiate that the locker was opened under the behest of Sivasankar. More than that, it would lend credence to Swapna's statement that she was only a tool for Sivasankar and others to make money.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan on Thursday said in the ED report it has been mentioned that Swapna got a job under the IT department headed by Vijayan after he told Sivasankar to give her the job.
"Vijayan knew everything about Swapna's job. The Vijayan government has been trying to scuttle a CBI probe right from its inception and it was for that they announced a Vigilance probe. The Vigilance probe also did not make headway after it found that if it goes forward, it will reach the top level. Vijayan will have to break his silence as the truth has started to come out slowly," said Satheesan.
Incidentally, Swapna got a job and the salary was in excess of Rs 1 lakh, when her educational qualification was she hadn't even passed Class X and when this issue first surfaced in 2020, Vijayan feigned ignorance and said he doesn't know anything.
Meanwhile, the ED is also expected to call in Swapna and her associate Sarith to undergo a joint questioning as the court has asked the former to produce Sivasankar at 2.30 pm on Monday and by then, if the probe has to go forward the defence of the now retired bureaucrat has to be broken.
According to Congress Lok Sabha member K Muraleedharan, it's best that Vijayan quits now, or his head will hang in shame.
