The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Chartered Accountant on the Life Mission Project of the Kerala Government’s LIFE (Livelihood Inclusion Financial Empowerment) Mission Programme on allegations of violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulations) Act (FCRA).
According to the reports the Chartered Accountant (CA) has been associated with M. Shivasankar, the former Principal Secretary of the Chief Minister of Kerala. The CA has allegedly helped Swapna Suresh to open a bank locker.
On Wednesday, a special court sentenced Sivasankar to five days in ED detention in connection with an alleged FCRA violation at the Living Mission Project in Wadakkanchery, Kerala’s Thrissur district.
A prominent suspect in the case of gold smuggling, Swapna Suresh, is said to have obtained assistance from the CA in opening a bank safe deposit box or bank locker where she kept the commission from the project.
The Kerala government filed a CBI FIR and a VACB complaint against Unitac Builders and Developers private limited and sane ventures LLP for “suspected pecuniary advantage obtained by some persons from the Life Mission project and illegal gratification received by various persons, including some public servants,” which are the sources of the money laundering case.
On a complaint from the Wadakkanchery Congress MLA, the CBI had in 2020 filed a FIR in a Kochi court under Section 120B of the IPC and Section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010.
The agency included some whatsapp conversations between Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh in its remand note, which it submitted to the court on February 15 in order to request Sivasankar’s custody. These conversations made it abundantly clear that government representatives were involved in both the contract’s allocation and the bribe.
The section 35 Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act of the punishment for contravention of any provision of the Act, whoever accepts, or assists any person, political party or organisation in accepting, any foreign contribution or any currency or security from a foreign source, in contravention of any provision of this Act or any rule or order made thereunder, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both.
When opposition parties claimed that Swapna Suresh had admitted to receiving Rs 1 crore in commission from the project before an NIA court, the alleged FCRA violation and corruption in the project had grown into a significant political problem.
However, the CEO of Life Mission had argued in court that Unitac and Sane Ventures had carried out the building in accordance with the agreement made with them by Red Crescent, a foreign agency /charitable trust.
The companies that signed an agreement with the Red Crescent, according to the petition, do not fall into any of the categories of people who are forbidden from accepting any foreign contributions under Section 3 of the FCRA.
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