Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, M Sivasankar, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged involvement with a gold smuggling racket, has written an autobiography that will be released on Saturday.
According to ‘Pachakuthira’ a Malayalam literary magazine which carried excerpts of the book in its latest edition, the autobiography carried interesting details about the case and his life in jail for almost three months. Titled ‘Aswathamavu: Verum Oru Aana’ (Aswarthamavu is only an elephant) is published by DC Books. The book is likely to create ripples in the state.
Suspended in 2020 after his arrest he was taken back in service two months ago and posted as the secretary with the sports and youth welfare department. According to excerpts, Sivasankar, who was the CM’s powerful principal secretary, admitted that main accused in the smuggling case Swapna Suresh sought his help to release the baggage confiscated at Thiruvananthapuram airport but he flatly refused.
Details of interrogation by the Customs and ED form part of the book. In the book, he has said he was really shocked after hearing Swapna Suresh knew about the smuggling but what really pained him was when the additional solicitor general called him “a kingpin of the smuggling racket”. “He casually said in the court I was the kingpin. Though I knew Suresh there is no evidence to link me with the case even today,” he has written in the book adding central agencies want him to name powerful people.
{{/usCountry}}Details of interrogation by the Customs and ED form part of the book. In the book, he has said he was really shocked after hearing Swapna Suresh knew about the smuggling but what really pained him was when the additional solicitor general called him “a kingpin of the smuggling racket”. “He casually said in the court I was the kingpin. Though I knew Suresh there is no evidence to link me with the case even today,” he has written in the book adding central agencies want him to name powerful people.
{{/usCountry}}The gold smuggling case came to light on July 5, 2020 when the Customs department seized 30 kg of gold hidden in bathroom fittings in one of the consignments, camouflaged as diplomatic baggage, which came in the name of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
So far, 32 people have been arrested in the high-profile case, which also led to major embarrassment for Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He was forced to remove his principal secretary M Sivasankar after his name allegedly cropped up in the case.
The case also saw the Union government and state locking horns several times with the latter even constituting a judicial commission against ED, a first of its sort, alleging the agency’s bid to implicate many senior leaders including CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The high court later scrapped the judicial commission.