Gold smuggling case: Kerala CM's ex-Secy appears before Customs

Kochi : M Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, arrived at the Customs office for the second time on Friday to face questions in the gold smuggling case.

Both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) already quizzed him.

The gold smuggling case came to light when P.S. Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was arrested by the Customs Department on July 5.

He was allegedly facilitating the smuggling of 30 kg of gold in the diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.

Soon the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the Consulate, later an employee at the state IT Department, surfaced, revealing her links with Sivasankar.

Alongside the gold smuggling case, the accused have also been found to have crucial links in the pet project of Vijayan -- 'Life Mission' project in Thrissur, where the flats were being built with the funds of the UAE based charity organisation 'Red Crescent'.

On Wednesday, following ED charge sheet, it surfaced Vijayan was allegedly aware of her posting in the Space Park and she had met CM six times in the company of Sivasankar who she termed as her mentor.

Vijayan all through has maintained that he's not aware of her job under his IT department.

Meanwhile, the state secretariat of the CPI-M is meeting in the state capital to take stock of the latest developments in the wake of the revelation that has come out of the ED charge sheet.

(This report from IANS has been edited)