Kochi: The NIA Special Court on Wednesday disposed of an anticipatory bail petition filed by former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister M Shivshankar in connection with a case filed by National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The NIA probe team told the court that presently Shivshankar is not an accused in the case and the plea need not be considered as there is no move to arrest him. The court disposed the bail application after Sivasankar's lawyer agreed to this.
The prosecutor, who appeared for the probe agency, also informed the court that the NIA has not considered including Shivshankar among the accused and if there is any move to arrest him, it will do so after informing the court.
Earlier, Sivasankar had also moved anticipatory bail application in Kerala High Court in connection with various cases filed registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Customs.
The High Court had directed ED and Customs that Sivashankar should not be arrested till October 23.
The ED, probing the money trail in the gold smuggling case, had opposed the anticipatory bail plea, submitting that he appears to be connected with the serious economic offence allegedly committed by prime accused in the case, Swapna Suresh.
It is expected that a decision on Shivshankar's arrest will be taken only after hearing the arguments of both the agencies.
According to Shivshankar's bail application, he was questioned 11 times by various agencies for more than 100 hours in connection with the Trivandrum airport gold smuggling case.
Shivshankar had demanded that he be allowed to appear for questioning without arrest as he is cooperating with the investigation.
