Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s additional private secretary C.M. Raveendran on Tuesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has been probing an alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulations) Act in the Life Mission, a flagship housing project of the state government.

The agency had earlier asked Raveendran to appear before it on February 27, but he cited official duties for not appearing on that day. Raveendran reached the ED office here around 9.30am and the interrogation is going on.

Earlier, a few media houses had released the suspected chat between Raveendran and the prime accused in the controversial gold-smuggling case Swapna Suresh.

The agency had earlier arrested the former principal secretary to the chief minister, M. Sivasankar, over his alleged involvement in the Life Mission project case.

The central agency had on February 18 interrogated U.V. Jose — the former CEO of Life Mission project — in connection with its probe.

The CBI had in 2020 filed an FIR in a Kochi court under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 35 of FCRA on a complaint by the then Wadakkanchery Congress MLA, Anil Akkara, listing Santosh Eappen, managing director of Unitac Builder, Kochi, as the first accused and Sane Ventures as the second accused.

The two companies had undertaken the construction based on the agreement entered with them by Red Crescent, an international humanitarian movement, which had agreed to provide Rs 20 crore towards the Life Mission project.

The Congress has been alleging that there was corruption involved in the selection of the contractor by Red Crescent.