NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has granted two months interim bail to chief minister’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar, arrested and jailed in the Life Mission case. The bail is granted for his surgery and post operative care. Bail was granted to him after rejecting the strong opposition of ED. A division bench comprising Justices A S Bopanna and M M Sundresh granted him bail.

The ED had opposed granting bail to Sivasankar. They said that if granted bail it would affect the investigation. Sivasankar was arrested on February 15 in money laundering charges in the Life Mission bribery case. He has been in jail for the past six months.

The ED alleged that Rs 4.5 crore was given to middlemen including government officials out of the ten lakh dirhams given by UAE Red Crescent, a volunteer organization in the UAE, for the project of Life Mission to build houses in Vadakanchery and laundered the black money received as commission. ED’s report also stated that Rs one crore recovered from the bank lockers in the name of Swapna is the bribe received by Sivasankar.