Kochi: The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar in a case relating to the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling scam. The court refused to grant relief to Sivasankar while upholding the arguments of the Enforcement Directorate which is probing the money trail of the smuggling racket.
The former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinaryi Vijayan, arrested by the ED on October 28, was in the custody of the central agency for the past 19 days. He has been remanded till November 26.
The agency had strongly opposed the bail application of Sivasankar when it came up for hearing in the court last week. The ED alleged that Sivasankar had a role in the gold smuggling through the diplomatic channel.
The counsel for Sivasankar countered the ED's argument, saying the allegation was raised based only on the statements given by Swapna Suresh, prime accused in the gold smuggling case, during her custodial interrogation. He had also accused the probe agency of forcing him to wrongly name politicians and had tried to frame him in the case.
In an affidavit filed in the court on November 18, the ED had stated that Swapna has given a statement to it claiming that Sivasankar and his team in the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) were aware of the smuggling of the gold through diplomatic channel.
The National Investigation Agency, Customs and the ED are conducting separate investigations into the seizure of gold worth nearly Rs 15 crore from a diplomatic baggage of UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5.
The ED has alleged that Sivasankar had intervened to get the diplomatic baggage containing smuggled gold cleared without examination by the Customs at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport.
The IAS officer was suspended after his links to Swapna surfaced.
