NIA grills Kerala CM’s former secretary for 9 hours in gold smuggling case

The IAS officer was suspended from service after his alleged association with Swapna Suresh, one of the accused in the gold smuggling case came to light.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Kerala gold smuggling case questioned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar for nine hours on Monday before letting him go with a direction to appear before it again on Tuesday.

M Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister, arrives at National Investigation Agency (NIA) office for interrogation in the Kerala gold smuggling case, in Kochi on Monday. (PTI)

This is the third time that round that Sivasankar has been questioned. The Customs department was the first to question him before the NIA did once.

A senior IAS officer, who was very close to the CM, he was suspended from service after his alleged association with Swapna Suresh, one of the accused in the gold smuggling case came to light.

After Monday’s questioning in Kochi, Sivasankar’s counsel S Rajeev said an intense media trail was on and many reports emerging these days were far from truth. He said Sivasankar was cooperating fully with the probe team and had nothing to hide. The once powerful principal secretary became embroiled in the controversy after the seizure of 30 kg gold from a consignment that came in the name of an employee of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. Later the case was handed over to the NIA.

After the seizure, there were reports that the CM’s office allegedly pressurized the Customs to release the consignment. Sivasankar reportedly told investigators that though he knew some of the accused he was not aware of their smuggling background. There are also reports that he was instrumental in appointing Swapna Suresh as the business development manager with the Kerala Information Technology Infrastructure Limited