New Delhi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has approached the Supreme Court with a plea to cancel the bail given to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's former principal secretary M Sivasankar in the money laundering case linked to the activities of a gold smuggling racket.
The central agency fears that attempts to derail the probe into the related cases are on and Sivasankar is orchestrating them by violating the bail conditions.
The ED alleged that after coming out on bail Sivasankar has been trying to use the government machinery to derail the probe.
Sivasankar was trying to sabotage the investigation using his influence and his continuation in bail could adversely affect the investigations, the ED plea filed by Deputy Director Jitendra Kumar stated.
The agency even suspects that the Crime Branch registered case against its investigating officials the other day at the behest of Sivasankar.
Sivasankar is also trying to create fake evidence against the investigating officials, the ED alleged.
The ED report states Sivasankar played a role in convincing Swapna Suresh, an accused, and two women cops to give statements accusing its officials of forcing them to name Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
(Swapna and Sivasankar have close ties.)
The petition pointed out that the registration of cases against investigating officials by the Crime Branch would make it difficult to enforce the rule of law.
It argued that efforts to create an impression that while in custody Swapna was forced to name Pinarayi Vijayan. However, Swapna had stated that there was no such pressure on her.
The petition also refers to the statement given by two women police officers who were deployed for her security while she was in custody. The ED pointed out that this clearly indicated that there was an attempt to manufacture fake evidence and statements.
The ED also refuted the allegation of another accused, Sandeep Nair, that he was forced to give a statement against the chief minister while he was in custody.
The ED made it clear that Sandeep Nair was not questioned.
