Santhosh Eappen, Managing Director of Unitac Builders, who is one of the contractors of the controversial Life Mission project in Kerala’s Wadakkanchery, has been arrested by the Customs Department in the dollar smuggling case. The case pertains to the smuggling of USD 1,90,000 (equivalent to Rs 1.30 crore) allegedly by the former Finance Head of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Santhosh Eappen is named as the fifth accused in the case. His arrest was recorded after Customs officials summoned him to the agency’s office for interrogation on Tuesday.
According to the investigation agency, an Egyptian national named Khalid, who was the head of the UAE Consulate, had smuggled USD 1,90,000 from India. The money is allegedly the commission he received from Santhosh Eappen and Vinod PV of Sane Ventures, for helping them bag the contract for Life Mission’s project in Wadakkanchery, which is sponsored by UAE-based Red Crescent.
Earlier, Santhosh and Vinod had told the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the money laundering angle in the gold smuggling case, that Khalid had demanded 20% of the Life Mission project amount in 2019. As per this, Rs 3.80 cr was handed over to Khalid, out of which some amount (about Rs 1.30 crore) was converted to US dollars and smuggled to Kuwait.
However, both Santhosh and Vinod are named as witnesses in the case by ED.
The dollar smuggling case and the controversies around the Life Mission project surfaced after the sensational gold smuggling through diplomatic consignment came to light.
Key gold smuggling accused persons – Swapna Suresh, Sarith PS and M Sivasankar IAS, former Principal Secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan – are the other accused in the dollar Smuggling case. Sivasankar, who was also booked in the gold smuggling case, got bail earlier this month after spending 98 days in prison.