Thiruvananthapuram: Former principal secretary and Chief Minister’s aide M Sivasankar will be questioned by CBI officials for his alleged involvement in the LIFE Mission case.
Sivasankar gets reprieve as govt panel finds no ulterior motive in data transfer Sivasankar allegedly received Rs 1 crore as commission when he awarded the LIFE Mission (mass house construction programme) contract. The LIFE Mission graft came to light during the investigation into the 2020 gold smuggling case through diplomatic channels busted at Thiruvananthapuram.
A notice was sent to him to appear at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Kochi on Thursday. This is the first time that Sivasankar is being questioned in the case.
The amount seized from the locker of gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh was, in fact, the commission received by Sivasankar. Apparently, Rs 18.50 crore was collected through the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram for the LIFE Mission project. Of this, Rs 4 crores were used in the graft.
Earlier, the Customs Department had arraigned Sivasankar as the sixth accused in the dollar smuggling case. Sivasankar was suspended on July 17, 2020, after a chief secretary-level inquiry committee found him to have links with the accused in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel case. However, he was taken back to service in January 2022.
