ED to grill C M Ravindran in Life Mission bribery case, asks him to appear on Monday

KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will question chief minister's additional private secretary C M Ravindran. He was directed to appear at the Kochi office on Monday. The notice was issued in connection with the Life Mission bribery case. The ED had arrested the former principal secretary to the chief minister M Sivasankar in the Life Mission case. The ED is questioning Sivasankar.

Sivasankar was arrested on the basis of his WhatsApp chats with Swapna Suresh. Ravindran's name was mentioned in the chat between Swapna and Sivasankar. Ravindran is questioned to know about this. Shivasankar was arrested for the third time in the gold smuggling case. He was arrested after three consecutive days of interrogation. Swapna had stated that the one crore found in her locker was the money obtained as bribe for Sivasankar. The ED said that when checked the WhatsApp chats they got the evidence against Sivasankar. After Sivasankar's arrest, the WhatsApp chats between Sivasankar, Swapna and Ravindran also surfaced. The ED has not confirmed the fact in the chats. The chat that has been circulated is that of Sivasankar explaining how the memorandum of understanding of the Life Mission project should be and the suggestion to contact Ravindran. The chats circulating in Ravindran's name are asking for financial assistance for floods and seeking personal information of Swapna.