M Sivasankar IAS moves HC seeking anticipatory bail
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Kochi: M Sivasankar IAS, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's former Principal Secretary, has approached the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail to evade arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the gold smuggling case.
In his application, Sivasankar claimed that nothing was found incriminating him despite nearly 90 hours of questioning over 100 days of investigation by central agencies such as the National Investigation Agency and the Customs.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a report in connection with the case before Special Court for PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) cases.
"..to satisfy certain vested interests, there is every possibility that the investigating agency is compelled to arrest the petitioner though he is not arrayed as accused in the final report," reads the application.
Sivasankar acknowledged that he used to have interactions with Swapna Suresh, one of the accused in the case, in official capacity as she was working as Secretary of the UAE Consulate.
The gold smuggling case was unearthed when P.S. Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was arrested by the Customs Department on July 5, when he was allegedly facilitating the smuggling of 30 kg of gold in the diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.
The case turned murkier when the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the Consulate, and currently working at the state IT Department, surfaced and more so, when her links with Sivasankar, got revealed.