THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vigilance sleuths will interrogate gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair in connection with the alleged Life mission scam. The accused will be grilled at the respective jails in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
They will be questioned on the commission they received for approving Unitac as the contractor for the housing project at Wadakkanchery in Thrissur district. When the deal was signed, Swapna was the then Secretary of the UAE consulate.
The sleuths will also seek clarity on the iPhones which were gifted to five persons including the Chief Minister's former principal secretary M Sivasankar as a bribe by Unitac Managing Director Santhosh Eapen.
Meanwhile, Vigilance officers have collected the bank account details of Swapna Suresh. She has accounts at Axis Bank and SBI in Thiruvananthapuram. The officers will also verify whether the money deposited in both the banks was from the commissions.
Earlier, Eapen had revealed to Vigilance officers that he had presented five iPhones to Swapna. She had earlier told the investigators that one phone was presented to Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. Phones were also gifted to Jithu, Praveen and Rajeevan. Rajeevan is an additional protocol officer and he had returned the phone to the secretary (local administration).
Vigilance sleuths had earlier concluded that government officers are involved in the alleged scam. The state government announced the vigilance probe last month. Opposition parties had alleged that several political leaders and officers had accepted huge sums as commission for implementing the project.
Life Mission, the state's ambitious housing scheme for the homeless and landless, also has a hospital project at Wadakkanchery. The row erupted after Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the gold smuggling case and a former UAE Consulate employee, revealed to the National Investigation Agency that she had received Rs 1 crore as commission from Unitac, the builder.