Suspended Principal Secretary M Sivasankar IAS hospitalised

Thiruvananthapuram: Suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar, facing probe in the gold smuggling case, was shifted to a private hospital here after he complained of uneasiness.

Hospital sources said he has been admitted to the cardiac ICU.

Customs officials had reached his home in the city to serve notice asking him to appear before them with some relevant documents at around 6 pm tonight, when he complained of uneasiness.

Sivasankar, the former Principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was taken to the hospital by the officials in a Customs vehicle.

He had been directed by the Customs to appear before it at Kochi on Tuesday last with some documents which they had sought.

This was in continuation of Sivasankar's questioning by Customs on Saturday.

Sivasankar informed the Customs department about his inability to be present on Tuesday as he had to be at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office and was asked to turn up after the ED interrogation.

However, he failed to do so and left for Thiruvananthapuram, Customs sources said.

Customs officials then suggested that he could appear with the relevant documents in the office here on Friday to which he had agreed, the sources added.

However, when they reached his home to serve notice, he complained of uneasiness and was taken to hospital.

Following an anticipatory bail plea by Sivasankar, the Kerala high court had restrained the ED, probing the money trail in the gold smuggling case, from arresting him till October 23.