KOCHI: After three days of questioning, CM Vijayan's former secretary M Sivashankar has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the LIFE Mission scam case. The arrest was made after 12 hours of questioning which started at 11 am on Tuesday.
The ED first asked Sivashankar to appear for questioning last week on the day of his retirement from service. He was later interrogated on Monday and Tuesday before making the arrest around 11.30 pm.
Around Rs.1 crore was found in Swapna Suresh's bank locker in connection with the Vadakancherry LIFE Mission case. Swapna Suresh said that this is the bribe received by Sivashankar in LIFE Mission. But despite being interrogated for three days continuously, Sivashankar did not confess to the crime. But the evidence and the conflicting statements in the interrogation with Santhosh Eapan led to the arrest.
This is the fourth time that central agencies have arrested Sivashankar. Earlier on October 28, 2020, the ED arrested Sivashankar in a money laundering case related to gold smuggling. He was then arrested by the NIA on November 25 in a gold smuggling case. On January 20, 2021, Customs also arrested him in a dollar smuggling case. Sivashankar, who was released after spending 69 consecutive days in jail. He was suspended from service but was later reinstated.
