Thiruvananthapuram: M Sivasankar, a powerful Kerala bureaucrat who has gone on leave soon after he was removed from two key posts in the government, admitted he has close links with the key accused in the gold smuggling case that has stirred up a political storm in the state.
In a nine-hour grilling by the Indian Customs on Tuesday, Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of the chief minister and former IT secretary, spilled the details regarding his friendship with Swpna Suresh, P S Sarith Kumar and Sandeep Nair, the second, first and fourth accused in the gold smuggling case respectively.
Sivasankar reportedly told the officials that he met Swapna for official needs and this familiarity grew into a friendship. Swapna allegedly introduced Sarith and Sandeep to Sivasankar.
This is the first time that a senior IAS officer in the state has been subjected to such a lengthy questioning as part of a case investigation. Sivasankar was removed from the two posts after details of his ties with Swapna and Sarith came out.
The officials reportedly showed Sivasankar some CCTV footage also and asked him about them during the interrogation. They also questioned him on the basis of the evidence they have collected about the several phone calls Sivasankar had made to the accused.
Sivasankar was summoned to the Customs office near the state Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram at 4:30pm on Tuesday for questioning. He was interrogated by a team led by K Ramamurthy, the Customs’ Assistant Commissioner at the Air Cargo Complex.
The interrogation, which started at 5pm, ended at around 2:15am on Wednesday. Officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) were also part of the interrogation team. The Customs Commissioner from Kochi also participated in the questioning through video-conference.
Sivasankar returned to his home in Poojappura in Thiruvananthapuram after the interrogation. The investigation team had earlier visited Sivasankar's flat to issue a notice to appear for questioning.
The Customs officials also carried out inquiries at a hotel near Sivasankar's flat. They collected CCTV footage from the hotel. They are trying to find out more details about four people who had stayed at the hotel on July 1 and 2.
The grilling of Sivasankar about his relation with the accused Swapna and Sarith assumes significance as the smuggling bid which was busted early this month was attempted through the diplomatic channel.
Close ties with the racket
The smuggling racket is said to have hatched conspiracies at Sivasankar’s flat. Sarith, the accused no: 1, has admitted to investigators that the gang talked about smuggling operations at the IAS officer’s flat in Thiruvananthapuram. He, however, claimed Sivasankar was not part of the racket. He never participated in the discussions and was not aware of what the gang was up to, Sarith said.
However investigators suspect that the ties Sivasankar shared with the accused was much deeper than just friendship as records of phone calls suggest so.
Sivasankar had called Sarith 15 times in April and May. Also, Sarith had called Sivasankar’s number nine times. The bureaucrat had returned the call five times, the sleuths stated.
Base of operations – a property near the Secretariat
Customs officials also revealed that Sivasankar had booked a flat near the Kerala Secretariat that the accused in the gold smuggling case had frequented.
"We have obtained audio recordings to prove this", the investigators said, adding "an employee of Sivasankar’s office had made the call to book the flat. He had introduced himself as a staff from the Chief Minister’s Office and had instructed that the flat be booked in the name of Swapna’s husband."
Customs officials got details of the booking from a contractor who rents out apartments on a daily basis.
Swapna and her gang had escaped from the flat after the smuggling racket came to light, the investigators said.
Customs officials summoned the contractor after ascertaining through CCTV footage that Sivansakar and the gang members had used the flat. The contractor first said that he doesn’t remember who booked the flat. But, he gave the details when he was confronted with the CCTV footage, the officials said. The contractor said that he records all his phone conversations. He handed over his phone to the Customs.
The officials retrieved the audio recordings from this phone. There were many calls from Sivasankar’s office in connection with the booking of the flat.
Although the flat was booked in the name of Swapna’s husband, the keys were taken by Swapna, Sarith, Sandeep and K T Ramees, another gold smuggler who is also in Customs’ custody.
The gang members rented the flat many times in a month. Ramees had paid the rent most of the time, the contractor said.
They had been in the flat a day before the smuggled gold arrived at the airport. The next day, after the consignment arrived, they went out many times, officials said.
No suspension for now: CM
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the chief secretary and the additional chief secretary for finance would scrutinise Sivasankar’s phone conversations with the gold smugglers.
There is no reason to suspend him now and that a decision, including on police investigation, would be taken after receiving the chief secretary’s report, the CM said.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency seized two phones from Sandeep’s Nedumangad residence. He had handed over these phones to his wife before going into hiding after the gold smuggling case was detected on July 5, sources said.
The NIA, which was handed over the investigation on July 9, had arrested Swapna and Sandeep from Bengaluru on July 11. The two had been on the run since July 5, when 30 kg gold was seized from a diplomatic baggage meant for an official at the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
