Kochi: In a significant twist in the ongoing probe into the gold smuggling case, the statements given by M Sivasankar's chartered accountant P Venugopal have raised serious questions about the credibility of the declarations made by the former before investigating agencies so far.
M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of Kerala Chief Minister, is in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over illegal transactions, mostly to aid the gold smuggling racket.
Just before Sivasankar's interrogation on Friday, Venugopal disclosed the officer's direct intervention in the case.
Venugopal, who is likely to be made a witness in the case, told the ED that the first time when Sivasankar and key accused Swapna Suresh came to his house they had a bag containing currency notes worth Rs 34 lakh.
It was only on the instructions of Sivasankar that he agreed to deposit the money in the locker opened jointly with Swapana, the CA said.
Subsequently, he requested Sivasankar to remove his name from the joint ownership of the locker on several occasions but he refused.
Wait for another aide of the CM
Meanwhile, the ED's move to jointly question chief minister's assistant private secretary C M Raveendran and Sivasankar could not materialise on Friday. With Raveendran conveying to the ED about testing positive for COVID-19, he was exempted from questioning.
The ED has been granted Sivasankar's custody up till November 11. His first remand period also ends on the same day. Once the remand period gets over, the ED officials will get the opportunity to question him only in jail during judicial custody. By that time Raveendran's quarantine period will not be over.
Aditya Narayana Rao, the CMD of Hyderabad-based Pennar Industries who was summoned by the ED for questioning on Friday could not make it citing that he was awaiting his COVID-19 test report.
The ED had conducted searches at the properties of Rao as it found crucial leads from the WhatsApp chats between Sivasankar and Swapna. It is suspected that the bureaucrat shared confidential government information with Swapna and other private parties.
The WhatsApp chats were scrutinised following the seizure of mobile handsets from the accused.
