Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court at Kochi recently sent Santosh Eapen, the managing director of Unitac Builders to ED custody till March 23, in connection with the alleged LIFE Mission scam case.
Earlier on Monday, Santhosh was arrested by ED in connection with the case.
Previously, during interrogation, Santhosh Eapen revealed that ₹3.80 crores out of ₹7.75 crores received from UAE Red Crescent for the LIFE Mission Housing Project in Thrissur’s Wadakkanchery were distributed as commission to various officials.
Therefore, in his statement to the probe team, he disclosed that he exchanged Indian money as a dollar with help of some bank officials and handed it directly over to Khalid Showkri, a former accountant in the Thiruvananthapuram UAE consulate.
The agency claimed that he also told ED officials that he gave money to the consulate official as directed by the gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh, PS Sarith, and Sandeep Nair.
Earlier on Tuesday, a special PMLA court extended the judicial custody of M Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, till April 4, in connection with the same case.
He was arrested by officials of the Enforcement Directorate on February 14.
The case pertains to the state government’s LIFE Mission project, which intended to provide homes to the poor who lost their houses in the 2018 floods. The housing project was proposed at Wadakkanchery in the Thrissur district.
The project intended to build houses for 140 families in Wadakkanchery by spending ₹14.50 crore out of ₹18.50 crore granted by the Red Crescent via the UAE consulate.
