Sivasankar faces NIA questioning for fourth time in gold scam
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Kochi: Former IT secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and senior IAS officer, M. Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh, prime accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case, are being questioned by the NIA officials at their office on Thursday.
Although Swapna Suresh is facing NIA questioning for the first time, for Sivasankar this is the fourth time.
The gold smuggling case first surfaced 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 gold in a diplomatic baggage from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram.
The case got into further tangle when the role of Swapna, a former employee of the UAE Consulate and later employed by Kerala government in the IT Department, came to light. Her links with Sivasankar came up later during the investigation and she revealed that he was her mentor.
After his links with Swapna surfaced, the chief minister first removed him from the post of his secretary and IT secretary, and later suspended him from service.