Kochi: Santhosh Eappen, the owner of Unitac Builders, which had signed contract for construction with Life Mission, was arrested here on Tuesday. Customs recorded his arrest after summoning him for interrogation at the Kochi office.

Eappen was named as the fifth accused in the case. Three of the other accused were arrested earlier.

Customs had found that Eappen had paid commission to the other accused in dollars to obtain the contract for the Life Mission project. The documents relating to the project which were in possession of the Unitac were inspected by the Customs earlier.

The other accused in the case are the accused named in gold smuggling case at Thiruvananthapuram airport including Swapna Suresh, PS Sarith, former UAE Consulate accountant and Egypt native Khalid and M Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister.

According to reports, more prominent persons will be named accused in the case in coming days.

  Santhosh Eappen