Kerala gold scam: NIA quizzed Sivasankar, Swapna Suresh for 9 hrs

Kochi: National Investigation Agency spent over 9 hours on Thursday questioning M. Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, in the gold smuggling case. He was allowed to go home at length.

It was the first time Sivasankar was being questioned by the NIA along with Swapna, the prime accused in the case, according to IANS

The gold smuggling case, which has the Vijayan government still running the gauntlet of journalists and Opposition, first surfaced after former employee of UAE Consulate P.S Sarith was arrested for allegedly facilitating the smuggling of 30kg gold.

The gold arrived in a diplomatic baggage from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram, causing headlines in national media.

Subsequently, the case got murkier after the role of Swapna, former employee of UAE Consulate and later an IT Department staff, surfaced.

Her links with Sivasankar came to light and she later revealed that he was her mentor.

CM Vijayan removed Sivasankar from the post of the CM's Principal Secretary, and also the State IT secretary before suspending him from service.

Meanwhile, CPI State Secretary Kanam Rajendran expressed surprise over the central agencies' questioning saying it has been happening for a while now, centred around the State Secretariat only, and wondered if it is a ploy by the BJP to keep the Left government under a cloud.

With inputs from IANS