The Kerala High Court on Monday suspended the arrest of former Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s secretary M Sivasankar, a senior official in the Administrative Service of India, until October 23 in the gold smuggling case.
Sivasankar, who was admitted to a hospital on Friday, moved the HC saying that the Customs department was harassing him and planned to arrest him despite his cooperation with the ongoing investigation. Last week, the HC had prevented the Directorate of Execution from arresting him until Friday. The HC will hear both requests (ED and Customs) on Friday.
In his guilty plea, Sivasankar maintained that he was being given a dice in the political game and that an intense media trial was underway. He said that he had undergone more than 90 hours of questioning and that investigating agencies had not detected any wrongdoing on his part. The court subsequently suspended his arrest until Friday.
On Friday, Sivasankar was rushed to a hospital after he complained of discomfort as customs personnel arrived at his home. Although he had some variations in his ECG, doctors said he did not suffer from any major health complications. Customs told the court that the hospitalization was a tactic to avoid arrest. He also informed the court that he has sufficient evidence to register him on charges of money laundering and foreign exchange violation.
The gold smuggling case came to light on July 5 after Customs seized 30kg of yellow metal from a package disguised as a diplomatic shipment marked with the UAE consulate in the state capital.
Subsequently, P Sarith Kumar, a former consulate employee who came to receive the luggage, was arrested by Customs after gold hidden inside the toilets was seized. Two other suspects, Swapna Suresh and her accomplice Sandip Nair, were arrested at their hideout in Bengaluru five days later. Sivasankar was suspended after his alleged ties to Suresh emerged. Now a multi-agency team is investigating the case and so far they have arrested 30 people.
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