Kochi: The Ernakulam PMLA court on Monday extended the custody of M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary to the chief minister by four days.

The special court, which decides on cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), approved the extension after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted that the diplomat's role in the Wadakkanchery Life Mission corruption case was bigger than expected. The court accepted the ED's demand for detailed interrogation.

The ED is interrogating Sivasankar in the case of accepting Rs 4.50 crore as a bribe from the Rs 19 crore given by the charity organisation UAE Red Crescent for the Wadakkanchery Life Mission housing scheme.

ED arrested Sivasankar on February 14. It was his fourth arrest by a central agency. He retired from service on January 31.

The case

The Life Mission project aims at providing houses for the poor at Wadakkanchery in the Thrissur district of Kerala.

The CBI had in 2020 filed an FIR in a Kochi court under section 120 B of the IPC and section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, on a complaint by the then Wadakkanchery Congress MLA, Anil Akkara, listing Santosh Eappen as the first accused and Sane Ventures as the second accused.

The two companies had undertaken the construction based on the agreement entered with them by Red Crescent, an international humanitarian movement, which had agreed to provide Rs 20 crore towards the Life Mission project.

The CBI had then taken a position that private company Unitac, carrying out construction on behalf of a Kerala government body, did not get the contract through a tender.

The project entailed the construction of 97 apartments and a health centre, and it was alleged that both the gold smuggling case accused held talks with Unitac and fixed a commission of 30 per cent of the project cost -- 20 per cent to a UAE official and 10 per cent to Swapna Suresh and other co-accused for approvals and other file movements.

The alleged FCRA violation and corruption in the project had snowballed into a major political issue at that time with opposition parties charging that Swapna Suresh had admitted before an NIA court that she had received Rs 1 crore as commission from the project. She had reportedly claimed that the money was for Sivasankar.

The CBI claimed that Sivasankar had met Santhosh Eapen at his chamber along with Swapna Suresh and assured full support.

UV Jose, the then Life Mission Chief Executive Officer, was also allegedly present at this meeting.

However, Life Mission CEO had submitted before the court that Unitac and Sane Ventures had undertaken the construction based on the agreement entered into with them by Red Crescent and had directly accepted foreign contributions from Red Crescent, which is a foreign agency.

The petition also said the companies which signed an agreement with the Red Crescent do not come under the categories of persons prohibited from receiving any foreign contribution as per Section 3 of the FCRA.